/^ 
 
 o^^ 
 
MIL 
 
 ..=_^a- 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
"Tbt out-of-tbe-way-tbingi ordinarily not uen" 
 
 ^GiforKs of Ura'del by 
 VC^itltam Eteroy Curtis 
 
 Modern India 
 
 Mr. Curtis' tour of India, of which he writes here, is 
 of absorbing interest and full of most useful 
 information. 
 
 E^ypf, 'Burmah and 'British 
 Malaysia 
 
 From material gathered upon the same tour of which 
 Mr. Curtis' book on India was written, and lii<e it 
 contains the most recent information available. 
 
 Uoday in Syria and 'Palestine: 
 
 uniform with "The Turk and His Lost Provinces." 
 "The pre-eminent merit of Mr. Curtis' books is that 
 he sees clearly and writes tellingly. No newspaper 
 writer except perhaps George Kennan surpasses him 
 in this respect." — Pittsburg Gazette. 
 
 Uhe ^urK. and His Lost 
 'Pro'Oinces 
 
 Sketches and Studies of Life and Travel in the 
 Land of the Sultan. 
 " Of very timely interest. The book gives the infor- 
 mation that the average person needs about the 
 near Eastern question." — New York Eveuing Post. 
 
 Each Ittuatraied. 8-Oo. Cloth. ^2.00 JVet 
 
MODERN INDIA 
 
 WILLIAM ELEROY CURTIS 
 
 Author of "The Turk and His Lost Provinces." "To-day in Syria 
 and Palestine," "Rffyft, Burma and British Malaysia" etk. 
 
 CHICAGO NEW YORK TORONTO- 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 LONDON & EDINBURGH 
 MCMV 
 
 Ju 
 
Copyright, 1905, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 Chicago: 63 Washington Street 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Toronto: 27 Richmond Street. W 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 30 St. Mary Street 
 
V5 ^] 5 
 
 To 
 LADY CURZON 
 
 An Ideal American Woman 
 
This volume contains a series of letters written 
 for The Chicago Record-Herald during the 
 winter of 1903-04, and are published in permanent 
 form through the courtesy of Mr. Frank B. 
 Noyes, Editor and publisher of that paper. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Eye of India . 
 
 II. The City of Bombay 
 
 III. Servants, Hotels, and Cave Tempi 
 
 IV. The Empire of India 
 V. Two Hindu Weddings . 
 
 VI. The Religions of India . 
 
 VII. How India Is Governed . 
 
 VIII. The Railways of India . 
 
 IX. The City of Ahmedabad . 
 
 X. Jeypore and its Maharaja 
 
 XI. About Snakes and Tigers 
 
 XII. The Rajputs and Their Country 
 
 XIII. The Ancient Mogul Empire 
 
 XIV. The Architecture of the Moguls 
 XV. The Most Beautiful of Buildings 
 
 XVI. The Quaint Old City of Delhi . 
 
 XVII. The Temples and Tombs at Delhi 
 
 XVIII. Thugs, Fakirs and Nautch Dancers 
 
 XIX. Simla and the Punjab 
 
 XX. Famines and Their Antidotes . 
 
 XXI. The Frontier Question . 
 
 XXII. The Army in India . 
 
 XXIII. Muttra, Lucknow and Cawnpore 
 
 XXIV. Caste and the Women of India 
 XXV. Education in India . 
 
 XXVI. The Himalyas and the Invasion of Thibet 
 
 XXVII. Benares, the Sacred City 
 
 XXVIII. American Missions in India 
 XXIV. Cotton, Tea and Opium . 
 
 XXX. Calcutta, the Capital of India . 
 
 II 
 27 
 
 46 
 62 
 83 
 99 
 
 120 
 144 
 156 
 164 
 186 
 194 
 202 
 217 
 232 
 250 
 268 
 277 
 
 295 
 312 
 
 351 
 366 
 382 
 
 397 
 413 
 428 
 
 457 
 467 
 483 
 
 ivi310361 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Map of India Frontispie,e 
 
 A Bombay Street 17 
 
 The Clock Tower and University Buildings, Bombay . . 23 
 
 Victoria Railway Station, Bombay 30 
 
 Nautch Dancers 92 
 
 Body ready for Funeral Pyre, Bombay Burning Ghat . . 105 
 Mohammedans at Prayer . . . . . . . .117 
 
 Huthi Singh's Tomb, Ahmedabad 162 
 
 Street Corner, Jeypore 169 
 
 The Maharaja of Jeypore 172 
 
 Hall of the Winds, Jeypore 17S 
 
 Elephant Belonging to the Maharaja of Jeypore . . . 181 
 
 Tomb of Etmah Dowlah, Agra 200 
 
 Portrait of Shah Jehan 228 
 
 Portrait of Akbar, the Great Mogul 228 
 
 The Taj Mahal 232 
 
 Interior of Taj Mahal 236 
 
 Tomb of Sheik Salira, Fattehpur 244 
 
 A Corner in Delhi 255 
 
 Hall of Marble and Mosaics, Palace of Moguls, Delhi . . 262 
 
 Tomb of Amir Khusran, Persian Poet, Delhi .... 275 
 
 "Kim," the Chela and the Old Lama 305 
 
 A Ekka, or Road Cart 317 
 
 A Team of "Critters" 324 
 
 Group of Famous Brahmin Pundits ..... 369 
 
 Tomb of Akbar, the Great Mogul 380 
 
 Audience Chamber of the Mogul Palace, Agra . . . 400 
 
 A Hindu Ascetic 43^ 
 
 A Hindu Barber 441 
 
 Bodies ready for Burning, Benares ...... 447 
 
 Great Banyan Tree, Botanical Garden, Calcutta . • . 475 
 
 The Princes of Pearls 501 
 
 -\ 
 
MODERN INDIA 
 
 THE EYE OF INDIA 
 
 A voyage to India nowadays is a continuous social 
 event. The passengers compose a house party, being 
 guests of the Steamship company for the time. The decks 
 of the steamer are like broad verandas and are covered 
 with comfortable chairs, in which the owners lounge 
 about all day. Some of the more industrious women knit 
 and embroider, and I saw one good mother with a basket 
 full of mending, at which she was busily engaged at least 
 three mornings. Others play cards upon folding tables 
 or write letters with portfolios on their laps, and we had 
 several artists who sketched the sky and sea, but the 
 majority read novels and guide books, and gossiped. As 
 birds of a feather flock together on the sea as well as on 
 land, previous acquaintances and congenial new ones 
 form little circles and cliques and entertain themselves 
 and each other, and, after a day or two, move their chairs 
 around so that they can be together. Americans and 
 English do not mix as readily as you might expect, al- 
 though there is nothing like coolness between them. It 
 is only a natural restraint. They are accustomed to their 
 ways, and we to ours, and it is natural for us to drift to- 
 ward our own fellow countrymen. 
 
 II 
 
12 MODERN INDIA 
 
 In the afternoon nettings are hung around one of the 
 broad decks and games of cricket are played. One day it 
 is the army against the navy ; another day . the united 
 service against a civilian team, and then the 
 cricketers in the second-class salon are invited to come ' 
 forward and try their skill against a team made up of 
 first-classers. In the evening there is dancing, a piano 
 being placed upon the deck for that purpose, and for two 
 hours it is very gay. The ladies are all in white, and sev- 
 eral English women insisted upon coming out on the deck 
 in low-cut and short-sleeved gowns. It is said to be the 
 latest fashion, and is not half as bad as their cirgarette 
 smoking or the ostentatious display of jewelry that is 
 made on the deck every morning. Several women, and 
 some of them with titles, sprawl around in steamer chairs, 
 W'Caring necklaces of pearls, diamonds, emeralds and 
 other precious stones, fit for only a banquet or a ball, 
 with their fingers blazing with jewels and their 
 wrists covered with bracelets. There seemed to be 
 a rivalry among the aristocracy on our steamer as to 
 which could make the most vulgar display of gold, silver 
 and precious stones, and it occurs to me that these Eng- 
 lishwomen had lived in India so long that they must have 
 acquired the Hindu barbaric love of jewelry. 
 
 My attention was called not long ago to a cartoon in a 
 British illustrated paper comparing the traveling outfits 
 of American and English girls. The American girl had a 
 car load of trunks and bags and bundles, a big bunch of 
 umbrellas and parasols, golf sticks, tennis racquets and 
 all sorts of queer things, and was dressed in a most con- 
 spicuous and elaborate manner. She was represented as 
 striding up and down a railway platform covered with 
 diamonds, boa, flashy hat and fancy finery, while the 
 
THE EYE OF INDIA 13 
 
 English girl, in a close fitting ulster and an Alpine hat, 
 leaned quietly upon her umbrella near a small "box," as 
 they call a trunk, and a modest traveling bag. But that 
 picture isn't accurate. According to my observation it 
 ought to be reversed. I have never known the most vul- 
 gar or the commonest American woman to make such a 
 display of herself in a public place as we witnessed daily 
 among the titled women upon the P. and O. steamer 
 Mongolia, bound for Bombay. Nor is it exceptional. 
 Whenever you see an overdressed woman loaded with 
 jewelry in a public place in the East, you may take it for 
 granted that she belongs to the British nobility. Ger- 
 mans, French, Italians and other women of continental 
 Europe are never guilty of similar vulgarity, and among 
 Americans it is absolutely unknown. 
 
 It is customary for everybody to dress for dinner, and, 
 while the practice has serious objections in stormy 
 weather it is entirely permissible and comfortable during 
 the long, warm nights on the Indian Ocean. The weather, 
 however, was not nearly as warm as we expected to find 
 it. We were four days on the Red Sea and six days on 
 the Indian Ocean, and were entirely comfortable except 
 for two days when the wind was so strong and kicked up 
 so much water that the port-holes had to be closed, and 
 it was very close and stuffy in the cabin. While the sun 
 was hot there was always a cool breeze from one direc- 
 tion or another, and the captain told me it was customary 
 during the winter season. 
 
 The passengers on our steamer were mostly English, 
 with a few East Indians, and Americans. You cannot 
 board a steamer in any part of the world nowadays with- 
 out finding some of your fellow countrymen. They are 
 becoming the greatest travelers of any nation and are 
 
14 MODERN INDIA 
 
 penetrating to uttermost parts of the earth. Many of the 
 English passengers were army officers returning to India 
 from furloughs or going out for service, and officers' 
 families who had been spending the hot months in Eng- 
 land. We had lots of lords and sirs and lady dowagers,- 
 generals, colonels and officers of lesser rank, and the 
 usual number of brides and bridegrooms, on their wed- 
 ding tours ; others were officials of the government in 
 India, who had been home to be married. And we had 
 several young women who were going out to be married. 
 Their lovers were not able to leave their business to make 
 the long voyage, and were waiting for them in Bombay, 
 Calcutta or in some of the other cities. But perhaps the 
 largest contingent were "civil servants," as employes of 
 the government are called, who had been home on leave. 
 The climate of India is very trying to white people, and, 
 recognizing that fact, the government gives its officials 
 six months' leave with full pay or twelve months' leave 
 with half pay every five years. In that way an official 
 who has served five consecutive years in India can spend 
 the sixth year in England or anywhere else he likes. 
 
 We had several notable natives, including Judge Nayar, 
 a judicial magistrate at Madras who has gained eminence 
 at the Indian bar and was received with honors in Eng- 
 land. He is a Parsee, a member of that remarkable race 
 which is descended from the Persian fire worshipers. He 
 dresses and talks and acts exactly like an ordinary Eng- 
 lish barrister. There were three brothers in the attractive 
 native dress, Mohammedans, sons of Adamjee Peerbhoy, 
 one of the largest cotton manufacturers and wealthiest 
 men in India, who employs more than 15,000 operatives 
 in his mills and furnished the canvas for the tents and 
 the khaki for the uniforms of the British soldiers during 
 
THE EYE OF INDIA 15 
 
 the South African war. These young gentlemen had 
 been making a tour of Europe, combining business with 
 pleasure, and had inspected nearly all the great cotton 
 mills in England and on the continent, picking up points 
 for their own improvement. They are intelligent and en- 
 terprising men and their reputation for integrity, ability 
 and loyalty to the British government has frequently been 
 recognized in a conspicuous manner. 
 
 Our most notable shipmate was the Right Honorable 
 Lord Lamington, recently governor of one of the Aus- 
 tralian provinces, on his way to assume similar responsi- 
 bility at Bombay, which is considered a more responsible 
 post. He is a youngish looking, handsome man, and 
 might easily be mistaken for Governor Myron T. Herrick 
 of Ohio. One night at dinner his lordship was toasted by 
 an Indian prince we had on board, and made a pleasant 
 reply, although it was plain to see that he was not an 
 orator. Captain Preston, the commander of the ship, 
 who was afterward called upon, made a much more bril- 
 liant speech. 
 
 The prince was Ranjitsinhji, a famous cricket player, 
 whom some consider the champion in that line of sport. 
 He went over to the United States with an English team 
 and will be pleasantly remembered at all the places he 
 visited. He is a handsome fellow, 25 years old, about the 
 color of a mulatto, with a slender athletic figure, graceful 
 manners, a pleasant smile, and a romantic history. His 
 father was ruler of one of the native states, and dying, 
 left his throne, title and estates to his eldest son. The 
 latter, being many years older than Ranjitsinhji, adopted 
 him as his heir and sent him to England to be educated 
 for the important duty he was destined to perform. He 
 went through the school at Harrow and Cambridge Uni- 
 
i6 MODERN INDIA 
 
 versity and took honors in scholarship as well as athletics, 
 and was about to return to assume his hereditary respon- 
 sibility in Indian when, to the astonishment of all con- 
 cerned, a boy baby was born in his brother's harem, the 
 first and only child of a rajah 78 years of age. The 
 mother was a Mohammedan woman, and, according to a 
 strict construction of the laws governing such things 
 among the Hindus, the child was not entitled to any con- 
 sideration whatever. Without going into details, it is 
 sufficient for the story to say that the public at large did 
 not believe that the old rajah was the father of the child, 
 or that the infant was entitled to succeed him even if he 
 had been. But the old man was so pleased at the birth of 
 the baby that he immediately proclaimed him his heir, 
 the act was confirmed by Lord Elgin, the viceroy, and the 
 honors and estates which Ranjitsinhji expected to inherit 
 vanished like a dream. The old man gave him an allow- 
 ance of $10,000 a year and he has since lived in London 
 consoling himself with cricket. 
 
 Another distinguished passenger was Sir Cowasji Je- 
 hangir Readymoney, an Indian baronet, who inherited 
 immense wealth from a long line of Parsee bankers. They 
 have adopted as a sort of trademark, a nickname given by 
 some wag to the founder of the family, in the last century 
 because of his immense fortune and success in trade. 
 Mr. Readymoney, or Sir Jehangir, as he is commonly 
 known, the present head of the house, was accompanied 
 by his wife, two daughters, their governess, and his son, 
 who had been spending several months in London, where 
 he had been the object of much gratifying attention. His 
 father received his title as an acknowledgment of his gen- 
 erosity in presenting $250,000 to the Indian Institute in 
 London, and for other public benefactions, estimated at 
 
THE EYE OF INDIA 17 
 
 $1,300,000. He built colleges, hospitals, insane asylums 
 and other institutions. He founded a Strangers' Home 
 at Bombay for the refuge of people of respectability who 
 find themselves destitute or friendless or become ill in 
 that city. He erected drinking fountains of artistic archi- 
 tecture at several convenient places in Bombay, and gave 
 enormous sums to various charities in London and else- 
 where without respect to race or creed. Both the Roman 
 Catholic and the Presbyterian missions in India have been 
 the recipients of large gifts, and the university at Bombay 
 owes him for its finest building. 
 
 Several of the most prominent native families in India 
 have followed the example of Mr, Readymoney by adopt- 
 ing the nicknames that were given their ancestors. In- 
 dian names are difficult to pronounce. What, for ex- 
 ample, would you call Mr. Jamshijdji or Mr. Jijibhai, 
 and those are comparatively simple? Hence, in early 
 times it was the habit of foreigners to call the natives 
 with whom they came in contact by names that were ap- 
 propriate to their character or their business. For ex- 
 ample, "Mr. Reporter," one of the editors of the Times of 
 India, as his father was before him, is known honorably 
 by a name given by people who were unable to pronounce 
 his father's Indian name. 
 
 Sir Jamsetjed Jeejeebhoy, one of the most prominent 
 and wealthy Parsees, who is known all over India for his 
 integrity and enterprise, and has given millions of dol- 
 lars to colleges, schools, hospitals, asylums and other 
 charities, is commonly known as Mr. Bottlewaller. 
 "Waller" is the native word for trader, and his grand- 
 father was engaged in selling and manufacturing bottles. 
 He began by picking up empty soda and brandy bottles 
 about the saloons, clubs and hotels, and in that humble 
 
i8 MODERN INDIA 
 
 way laid the foundation of an immense fortune and a rep- 
 utation that any man might envy. The family have al- 
 ways signed their letters and checks "Bottlewaller," and 
 have been known by that name in business and society. 
 But when Queen Victoria made the grandfather a bar- 
 onet because of distinguished services, the title was con- 
 ferred upon Jamsetjed Jeejeebhoy, which was his lawful 
 name. 
 
 Another similar case is that of the Petit family, one of 
 the richest in India and the owners and occupants of the 
 finest palaces in Bombay. Their ancestor, or the first of 
 the family who distinguished himself, was a man of very 
 small stature, almost a dwarf, who was known as Le 
 Petit. He accepted the christening and bore the name 
 honorably, as his sons and grandsons have since done. 
 They are now baronets, but have never dropped it, and 
 the present head of the house is Sir Manockji Petit. 
 
 The Eye of India, as Bombay is called, sits on an island 
 facing the Arabian Sea on one side and a large bay on 
 the other, but the water is quite shallow, except where 
 channels have been dredged to the docks. The scenery is 
 not attractive. Low hills rise in a semicircle from the 
 horizon, half concealed by a curtain of mist, and a few 
 green islands scattered about promiscuously are occupied 
 by hospitals, military barracks, villas and plantations. 
 Nor is the harbor impressive. It is not worth description, 
 but the pile of buildings which rises on the city side as the 
 steamer approaches its dock is imposing, being a pic- 
 turesque mingling of oriental and European architecture. 
 Indeed, I do not know of any city that presents a braver 
 front to those who arrive by sea. At the upper end, which 
 you see first, is a group of five-story apartment houses, 
 with oriental balconies and colonnades. Then comes a 
 
THE EYE OF INDIA 19 
 
 monstrous new hotel, built by a stock company under the 
 direction of the late J. N. Tata, a Parsee merchant who 
 visited the United States several times and obtained his 
 inspirations and many of his ideas there. Beside the 
 hotel rise the buildings of the yacht club, a hospitable as- 
 sociation of Englishmen, to which natives, no matter how 
 great and good they may be, are never admitted. Con- 
 nected with the club is an apartment house for gentlemen, 
 and so hospitable are the members that a traveler can 
 secure quarters there without difficulty if he brings a let- 
 ter of introduction. 
 
 Next toward the docks is an old castle whose gray and 
 lichen-covered walls are a striking contrast to the new 
 modern buildings that surround it. These walls inclose a 
 considerable area, which by courtesy is called a fort. It 
 was a formidable defense at one time, and has been the 
 scene of much exciting history, but is obsolete now. The 
 walls are of heavy masonry, but a shot from a modern 
 gun would shatter them. They inclose the military head- 
 quarters of the Bombay province, or Presidency, as it is 
 called in the Indian gazetteer, the cathedral of this diocese, 
 quarters and barracks for the garrison, an arsenal, mag- 
 azines and other military buildings and a palatial sailors' 
 home, one of the finest and largest institution of the kind 
 in the world, which is supported by contributions from 
 the various shipping companies that patronize this place. 
 There are also several machine shops, factories and ware- 
 houses which contain vast stores of war material of every 
 sort sufficient to equip an army at a fortnight's notice. 
 About twelve hundred men are constantly employed in 
 the arsenal and shops making and repairing military arms 
 and equipments. There is a museum of ancient weapons, 
 and many which were captured from the natives in the 
 
20 MODERx\ INDIA 
 
 early days of India's occupation are quite curious ; and 
 there the visitor will have his first view of one of the 
 greatest wonders of nature, a banyan tree, which drops 
 its branches to take root in the soil beneath its over- 
 spreading boughs. But you must wait until you get to 
 Calcutta before you can see the best specimens. 
 
 Bombay is not fortified, except by a few guns behind 
 some earthworks at the entrance of the harbor, but it 
 must be if the Russians secure a port upon the Arabian 
 Sea ; not only Bombay, but the entire west coast of India. 
 The only protection for the city now is a small fleet of 
 battle ships, monitors and gunboats that lie in the harbor, 
 and there are usually several visiting men of war at the 
 anchorage. 
 
 Bombay is the second city in population in India, Cal- 
 cutta standing first on the list with 1,350,000 people, and, 
 if you will take your map for a moment, you will see that 
 the two cities lie in almost the same latitude, one on each 
 side of the monstrous peninsula — Bombay at the top of 
 the Arabian Sea and Calcutta at the top of the Bay of 
 Bengal. By the census of 1891 Bombay had 821,764 pop- 
 ulation. By the census of 1901 the total was 776,006, the 
 decrease of 45,758 being attributed to the frightful mor- 
 tality by the plague in 1900 and 1901. It is the most en- 
 terprising, the most modern, the most active, the richest 
 and the most prosperous city in India. More than 90 per 
 cent of the travelers who enter and leave the country pass 
 over the docks, and more than half the foreign commerce 
 of the country goes through its custom-house. It is by 
 all odds the finest city between modern Cairo and San 
 Francisco, and its commercial and industrial interests ex- 
 ceed that of any other. 
 
 The arrangements for landing passengers are admir- 
 
THE EYE OF INDIA 21 
 
 able. On the ship all our baggage was marked with 
 numbers corresponding to that of our declaration to the 
 collector of customs. The steamer anchored out about a 
 quarter of a mile from a fine covered pier. We were de- 
 tained on board until the baggage, even our small pieces, 
 was taken ashore on one launch and after a while we fol- 
 lowed it on another. Upon reaching the dock we passed 
 up a long aisle to where several deputy collectors were 
 seated behind desks. As we gave our names they looked 
 through the bundles of declarations which had been 
 arranged alphabetically, and, finding the proper one, told 
 us that we would have to pay a duty of 5 per cent upon 
 our typewriter and kodaks, and that a receipt and certif- 
 icate would be furnished by which we could recover the 
 money at any port by which we left India. Nothing else 
 was taxed, although I noticed that nearly every passenger 
 had to pay on something else. There is only one rate of 
 duty — 5 per cent ad valorem upon everything — jewelry, 
 furniture, machinery — all pay the same, which simplified 
 the transaction. But the importation of arms and am- 
 munition is strictly prohibited and every gun, pistol and 
 cartridge is confiscated in the custom-house unless the 
 owner can present evidence that he is an officer of the 
 army or navy and that they are the tools of his trade, or 
 has a permit issued by the proper authority. This pre- 
 caution is intended to anticipate any conspiracy similar to 
 that which led to the great mutiny of 1857. The natives 
 are not allowed to carry guns or even to own them, and 
 every gun or other weapon found in the hands of a Hindu 
 is confiscated unless he has a permit. And as an addi- 
 tional precaution the rifles issued to the native regiments 
 in the army have a range of only twelve hundred yards, 
 while those issued to the white regiments will kill at six- 
 
22 MODERN INDIA 
 
 teen hundred yards ; thus giving the latter an important 
 advantage in case of an insurrection. 
 
 After having interviewed the deputy collector, we were 
 admitted to a great pen or corral in the middle of the pier, 
 which is inclosed by a high fence, and there found all our 
 luggage piled up together on a bench. And all the trunks 
 and bags and baskets from the ship were similarly as- 
 sorted, according to the numbers they bore. We were 
 not asked to open anything, none of our packages were 
 examined, the declarations of passengers usually being 
 accepted as truthful and final unless the inspectors have 
 reason to believe or suspect deception. Gangs of coolies 
 in livery, each wearing a brass tag with his number, stood 
 by ready to seize the baggage and carry it to the hotel 
 wagons, which stood outside, where we followed it and 
 directed by a polite Sikh policeman, took the first carriage 
 in line. Everything was conducted in a most orderly 
 manner. There was no confusion, no jostling and no ex- 
 citement, which indicates that the Bombay officials have 
 correct notions of what is proper and carry them into 
 practice. 
 
 The docks of Bombay are the finest in Asia, and when 
 the extensions now in progress are carried out few cities 
 in Europe can surpass them. They are planned for a cen- 
 tury in advance. The people of Bombay are not boastful, 
 but they are confident of the growth of their city and its 
 commerce. Attached to the docks is a story of integrity 
 and fidelity worth telling. In 1735 the municipal author- 
 ities of the young city, anticipating commercial prosper- 
 ity, decided to improve their harbor and build piers for 
 the accommodation of vessels, but nobody around the 
 place had experience in such matters and a commission 
 was sent off to other cities of India to find a man to take 
 
THE EYE OF INDIA 23 
 
 charge. The commission was very much pleased with the 
 appearance and abihty of Lowji Naushirwanji, the Par- 
 see foreman of the harbor at the neighboring town of 
 Surat, and tried to coax him away by making a very 
 lucrative offer, much in advance of the pay he was then 
 receiving. He was too loyal and honest to accept it, and 
 read the commission a lecture on business integrity which 
 greatly impressed them. When they returned to Bombay 
 and related their experience, the municipal authorities 
 communicated with those of Surat and inclosed an invita- 
 tion to Naushirwanji to come down and build a dock for 
 Bombay. The offer was so advantageous that his em- 
 ployers advised him to accept it. He did so, and from 
 that day to this a man of his name, and one of his de- 
 scendants, has been superintendent of the docks of this 
 city. The office has practically become hereditary in the 
 family. 
 
 A decided sensation awaits the traveler when he passes 
 out from the pier into the street, particularly if it is his 
 first visit to the East, He already has had a glimpse of 
 the gorgeous costumes of the Hindu gentleman and the 
 priestly looking Parsees, and the long, cool white robes 
 of the common people, for several of each class were 
 gathered at the end of the pier to welcome friends who 
 arrived by the steamer, but the moment that he emerges 
 from the dock he enters a new and a strange world filled 
 with vivid colors and fantastic costumes. He sees his 
 first "gherry," a queer-looking vehicle made of bamboo, 
 painted in odd patterns and bright tints, and drawn by a 
 cow or a bullock that will trot almost as fast as a horse. 
 All vehicles, however, are now called "gherrys" in India, 
 no matter where they come from nor how they are built — 
 
24 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the chariot of the viceroy as well as the little donkey cart 
 of the native fruit peddler. 
 
 The extent of bare flesh visible — masculine and fem- 
 inine — startles you at first, and the scanty apparel worn 
 by the common people of both sexes. Working women 
 walk by with their legs bare from the thighs down, wear- 
 ing nothing but a single garment wrapped in graceful 
 folds around their slender bodies. They look very small, 
 compared with the men, and the first question every 
 stranger asks is the reason. You are told that they are 
 married in infancy, that they begin to bear children by the 
 time they are 12 and 14 years old, and consequently do 
 not have time to grow ; and perhaps that is the correct 
 explanation for the diminutive stature of the women of 
 India. There are exceptions. You see a few stalwart 
 amazons, but ninety per cent or more of the sex are under 
 size. Perhaps there is another reason, which does not 
 apply to the upper classes, and that is the manual labor 
 the coolies women perform, the loads they carry on their 
 heads and the heavy lifting that is required of them. If 
 you approach a building in course of erection you will 
 find that the stone, brick, mortar and other material is 
 carried up the ladders and across the scaffolding on the 
 heads of women and girls, and some of these "hod car- 
 riers" are not more than 10 or 12 years old. They carry 
 everything on their heads, and usually it requires two 
 other women or girls to hoist the heavy burden to the 
 head of the third. All the weight comes on the spine, 
 and must necessarily prevent or retard growth, although 
 it gives them an erect and stately carriage, which women 
 in America might imitate with profit. At the same time, 
 perhaps, our women might prefer to acquire their car- 
 
THE EYE OF INDIA 25 
 
 riage in some other way than "toting" a hodful of bricks 
 to the top of a four-story building. 
 
 The second thing that impresses you is the amount of 
 glistening silver the working women wear upon their 
 naked limbs. To drop into poetry, like Silas Wegg, they 
 wear rings in their noses and rings on their toeses, and 
 bands of silver wherever they can fasten them on their 
 arms and legs and neck. They have bracelets, anklets, 
 armlets, necklaces, and their noses as well as their ears 
 are pierced for pendants. You wonder how a woman can 
 eat, drink or sleep with a great big ornament hanging 
 over her lips, and some of the earrings must weigh sev- 
 eral ounces, for they fall almost to the shoulders. You 
 will meet a dozen coolie women every block with two or 
 three pounds of silver ornaments distributed over their 
 persons, which represent their savings bank, for every 
 spare rupee is invested in a ring, bracelet or a necklace, 
 which, of course, does not pay interest, but can be dis- 
 posed of for full value in case of an emergency. The 
 workmanship is rude, but the designs are often pretty, 
 and a collection of the silver ornaments worn by Hindu 
 women would make an interesting exhibit for a museum. 
 They are often a burden to them, particularly in hot 
 weather, when they chafe and burn the flesh, and our 
 Bombay friends tell us that in the summer the fountain 
 basins, the hydrants and every other place where water 
 can be found will be surrounded by women bathing the 
 spots where the silver ornaments have seared the skin and 
 cooling the metal, which is often so hot as to burn the 
 fingers. 
 
 Another feature of Bombay life which immediately 
 seizes the attention is the gay colors worn by everybody, 
 which makes the streets look like animated rainbows or 
 
26 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the kaleidoscopes that you can buy at the lo-cent stores. 
 Orange and scarlet predominate, but yellow, pink, purple, 
 green, blue and every other tint that was ever invented 
 appears in the robes of the Hindus you meet upon the 
 street. A dignified old gentleman will cross your path 
 with a pink turban on his head and a green scarf wound 
 around his shoulders. The next man you meet may have 
 a pair of scarlet stockings, a purple robe and a tunic of 
 wine-colored velvet embroidered in gold. There seems 
 to be no rule or regulation about the use of colors and no 
 set fashion for raiment. The only uniformity in the cos- 
 tume worn by the men of India is that everybody's legs 
 are bare. Most men wear sandals ; some wear shoes, but 
 trousers are as rare as stovepipe hats. The native mer- 
 chant goes to his counting-room, the banker to his desk, 
 the clergyman discourses from a pulpit, the lawyer ad- 
 dresses the court, the professor expounds to his students 
 and the coolie carries his load, all with limbs naked from 
 the ankles to the thighs, and never more than half-con- 
 cealed by a muslin divided skirt. 
 
 The race, the caste and often the province of a resi- 
 dent of India may be determined by his headgear. The 
 Parsees wear tall fly-trap hats made of horse hair, with 
 a top like a cow's foot ; the Mohammedans wear the fez, 
 and the Hindus the turban, and there are infinite varieties 
 of turbans, both in the material used and in the manner in 
 which they are put up. An old resident of India can us- 
 ually tell where a man comes from by looking at his 
 turban. 
 
II 
 
 THE CITY OF BOMBAY 
 
 There are two cities in Bombay, the native city and the 
 foreign city. The foreign city spreads out over a large 
 area, and, although the population is only a small per cent 
 of that of the native city, it occupies a much larger space, 
 which is devoted to groves, gardens, lawns, and other 
 breathing places and pleasure grounds, while, as is the 
 custom in the Orient, the natives are packed away several 
 hundred to the acre in tall houses, which, with over- 
 hanging balconies and tile roofs, line the crooked and 
 narrow streets on both sides. Behind some of these tall 
 and narrow fronts, however, are dwellings that cover a 
 good deal of ground, being much larger than the houses 
 we are accustomed to, because the Hindus have larger 
 families and they all live together. When a young man 
 marries he brings his bride home to his father's house, 
 unless his mother-in-law happens to be a widow, when 
 they often take up their abode with her. But it is not 
 common for young couples to have their own homes ; 
 hence the dwellings in the native quarters are packed 
 with several generations of the same family, and that 
 makes the occupants easy prey to plagues, famine and 
 other agents of human destruction. 
 
 The Parsees love air and light, and many rich Hindus 
 have followed the foreign colony out into the sub- 
 urbs, where you find a succession of handsome villas or 
 
 27 
 
28 MODERN INDIA 
 
 bungalows, as they arc called, half-hidden by high walls 
 that inclose charming gardens. Some of these bungalows 
 are very attractive, some are even sumptuous in their ap- 
 pointments — veritable palaces, filled with costly furniture 
 and ornaments — but the climate forbids the use of many 
 of the creature comforts which American and European 
 taste demands. The floors must be of tiles or cement and 
 the curtains of bamboo, because hangings, carpets, rugs 
 and upholstery furnish shelter for destructive and disa- 
 greeable insects, and the aim of everybody is to secure as 
 much air as possible without admitting the heat. 
 
 Bombay is justly proud of her public buildings. Few 
 cities have such a splendid array. None that I have ever 
 visited except Vienna can show an assemblage so im- 
 posing, with such harmony and artistic uniformity com- 
 bined with convenience of location, taste of arrangement 
 and general architectural efifect. There is nothing, of 
 course, in Bombay that will compare with our Capitol or 
 Library at Washington, and its state and municipal build- 
 ings cannot compete individually with the Parliament 
 House in London, the Hotel de Ville de Paris or the 
 Palace of Justice in Brussels, or many others I might 
 name. But neither Washington nor London nor Paris 
 nor any other European or American city possesses such 
 a broad, shaded boulevard as Bombay, with the Indian 
 Ocean upon one side and on the other, stretching for a 
 mile or more, a succession of stately edifices, Vienna has 
 the boulevard and the buildings, but lacks the water 
 effect. It is as if all the buildings of the University of 
 Chicago were scattered along the lake front in Chicago 
 from the river to Twelfth street. 
 
 The Bombay buildings are a mixture of Hindu, Gothic 
 and Saracenic architecture, blended with taste and sue- 
 
THE CITY OF BOMBAY 29 
 
 cess, and in the center, to crown the group, rises a stately 
 clock tower of beautiful proportions. All of these build- 
 ings have been erected during the last thirty years, the 
 most of them with public money, many by private munif- 
 icence. The material is chiefly green and gray stone. 
 Each has ample approaches from all directions, which 
 contribute to the general effect, and is surrounded by 
 large grounds, so that it can be seen to advantage from 
 any point of view. Groves of full-grown trees furnish a 
 noble background, and wide lawns stretch before and be- 
 tween. There is parking along the shore of the bay, then 
 a broad drive, with two sidewalks, a track for bicycles 
 and a soft path for equestrians, all overhung with far- 
 stretching boughs of immense and ancient trees, which 
 furnish a grateful shade against the sun and add to the 
 beauty of the landscape. I do not know of any such 
 driveway elsewhere, and it extends for several miles, 
 starting from an extensive common or parade ground, 
 which is given up to games and sports. Poor people are 
 allowed to camp there in tents in hot weather, for there, 
 if anywhere, they can keep cool, because the peninsula 
 upon which Bombay stands is narrow at that point, and if 
 a breeze is blowing from any direction they get it. At in- 
 tervals the boulevard is intersected by small, well-kept 
 parks with band stands, and is broken by walks, drives, 
 beds of flowers, foliage, plants and other landscape decor- 
 ations ; and this in the midst of a great city. 
 
 On the inside of the boulevard, following the contour 
 of the shore of the bay, is first, Elphinstone College, then 
 the Secretariat, which is the headquarters of the govern- 
 ment and contains several state apartments of noble pro- 
 portions and costly decorations. The building is 443 feet 
 long, with a tower 170 feet high. Next it are the 
 
30 MODERN INDIA 
 
 buildings of the University of Bombay, a library with a 
 tower 260 feet high, a convocation hall of beautiful de- 
 sign and perfect proportions and other buildings. Then 
 comes the Courts of Justice ; an immense structure nearly 
 600 feet long, with a tower 175 feet high, which resem- 
 bles the Law Courts of London, and is as appropriate as 
 it is imposing. The department of public works has the 
 next building; then the postoffice department, the tele- 
 graph department, the state archives building and patent 
 office in order. The town hall contains several fine rooms 
 and important historic pictures. The mint is close to the 
 town hall, and next beyond it are the offices of the Port 
 Trust, which would correspond to our harbor commis- 
 sioners. Then follow in order the Holy Trinity Church, 
 the High School, St. Xavier's College, the Momey In- 
 stitute, Wilson College, long rows of barracks, officers' 
 quarters and clubs, the Sailors' Home, several hospitals, 
 a school of art and Elphinstone High School, which is 
 452 by 370 feet in size and one of the most palatial educa- 
 tional institutions I have ever seen, the splendid group 
 culminating in the Victoria Railway station, which is the 
 finest in the world and almost as large as any we have in 
 the United States. 
 
 It is a vast building of Italian Gothic, with oriental 
 towers and pinnacles, elaborately decorated with sculp- 
 ture and carving, and a large central dome surmounted 
 by a huge bronze figure of Progress. The architect was 
 Mr. F, W. Stevens, a Bombay engineer ; it was finished in 
 1888 at a cost of $2,500,000, and the wood carving, the 
 tiles, the ornamental iron and brass railings, the grills for 
 the ticket offices, the restaurant and refreshment rooms, 
 the balustrades for the grand staircases, are all the work 
 of the students of the Bombay School of Art, which gives 
 
THE CITY OF BOMBAY 31 
 
 it additional interest, although critics have contended that 
 the architecture and decorations are too ornate for the 
 purpose for which it is used. 
 
 Wilson College, one of the most imposing of the long 
 line of buildings, is a memorial to a great Scotch mission- 
 ary who lived a strenuous and useful life and impressed 
 his principles and his character upon the people of India 
 in a remarkable manner. He was famous for his common 
 sense and accurate judgment ; and till the end of his days 
 retained the respect and confidence of every class of the 
 community, from the viceroy and the council of state down 
 to the coolies that sweep the streets. All of them knew 
 and loved Dr. Wilson, and although he never ceased to 
 preach the gospel of Christ, his Master, with the energy, 
 zeal and plain speaking that is characteristic of Scotch- 
 men, the Hindus, Mohammedans, Parsees, Jains, Jews 
 and every other sect admired and encouraged him as 
 much as those of his own faith. 
 
 One-fourth of all these buildings were presented to the 
 city by rich and patriotic residents, most of them Parsees 
 and Hindus. The Sailors' Home was the gift of the Ma- 
 harajah of Baroda ; University Hall was founded by Sir 
 Cowasjee Jehangir Readymoney, who also built Elphin- 
 stone College. He placed the great fountain in front of 
 the cathedral, and, although a Parsee, built the spire on 
 the Church of St. John the Evangelist. 
 
 Mr. Dharmsala, another Parsee, built the Ophthalmic 
 Hospital and the European Strangers' Home and put 
 drinking fountains about the town. David Sassoon, a 
 Persian Jew, founded the Mechanics' Institute, and his 
 brother. Sir Albert Sassoon, built the tower of the Elphin- 
 stone High School. Mr. Premchand Raichand built the 
 university library and clock tower in memory of his 
 
32 MODERN INDIA 
 
 mother. Sir Jamsetji Jijibhal gave the school of art and 
 the Parsee Benevolent Institute ; the sons of Jarahji 
 Parak erected the almshouse. Mr. Rustam Jamshidji 
 founded the Hospital for Women, the East India Com- 
 pany built the Town Hall and other men gave other build-- 
 ings with the greatest degree of public spirit and patriot- 
 ism I have ever seen displayed in any town. The guide- 
 book says that during the last quarter of a century patri- 
 otic residents of Bombay, mostly natives, have given more 
 than $5,000,000 for public edifices. It is a new form for 
 the expression of patriotism that might be encouraged in 
 the United States. 
 
 Several statues were also gifts to the city; that of 
 Queen Victoria, which is one of the finest I have ever 
 seen, having been erected by the Maharajah of Baroda, 
 and that of the Prince of Wales by Sir Edward Beohm. 
 These are the best, but there are several others. Queen 
 Victoria's monument, which stands in the most prominent 
 plaza, where the busiest thoroughfares meet, represents 
 that good woman sitting upon her throne under a lofty 
 Gothic canopy of marble. The carving is elaborate and 
 exquisite. In the center of the canopy appears the Star 
 of India, and above it the Rose of England, united with 
 the Lotus of India, with the mottoes of both countries in- 
 tertwined — "God and My Right" and "Heaven's Light 
 Our Guide." 
 
 Queen Victoria was no stranger to the people of India. 
 They felt a personal relationship with their empress, and 
 many touching incidents are told that have occurred from 
 time to time to illustrate the aflfection of the Hindus for 
 her. They were taught to call her "The Good Lady of 
 England," and almost every mail, while she was living, 
 carried letters from India to London bearing that address. 
 
THE CITY OF BOMBAY 33 
 
 They came mostly from Hindu women who had learned 
 of her goodness, sympathy and benevolence and hired 
 public scribes at the market places to tell her of their suf- 
 ferings and wrongs. 
 
 In the center of another plaza facing a street called 
 Rampart row, which is lined by lofty buildings containing 
 the best retail shops in town, is a figure of Edward VH. 
 in bronze, on horseback, presented by a local merchant. 
 Near the cathedral is a statute to Lord Cornwallis, who 
 was governor general of India in 1786, and, as the in- 
 scription informs us, died at Ghazipur, Oct. 5, 1805. 
 This was erected by the merchants of Bombay, who paid 
 a similar honor to the Marquis of Wellesley, younger 
 brother of the Duke of Wellington, who was also gov- 
 ernor general during the days of the East India Company, 
 and did a great deal for the country. He was given a 
 purse of $100,000, and his statue was erected in Bombay, 
 but he died unhappy because the king refused to create 
 him Duke of Hindustan, the only honor that would have 
 satisfied his soul. There are several fine libraries in Bom- 
 bay, and the Asiatic Society, which has existed since the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century, has one of the 
 largest and most valuable collections of oriental literature 
 in existence. 
 
 For three miles and a half the boulevard, and its sev- 
 eral branches are bounded by charming residences, which 
 overlook the bay and the roofs of the city. Malabar Point 
 at the end of the drive, the extreme end of the island 
 upon which Bombay is built, is the government house, the 
 residence of the Lord Lamington, who represents King 
 Edward VII. in this beautiful city. It is a series of bung- 
 alows, with large, cool rooms and deep verandas, shaded 
 by immense trees and luxurious vines, and has accom- 
 
34 MODERN INDIA 
 
 modations altogether for about lOO people. The staff of 
 the governor is quite large. He has all kinds of aides-de- 
 camp, secretaries and attaches, and maintains quite a little 
 court. Indeed, his quarters, his staff and his style of liv- 
 ing are much more pretentious than those of the Presi- 
 dent of the United States, and his salary is quite as large. 
 Everywhere he goes he is escorted by a bodyguard of 
 splendid looking native soldiers in scarlet uniforms, big 
 turbans and long spears. They are Sikhs, from the north 
 of India, the greatest fighters in the empire, men of large 
 stature, military bearing and unswerving loyalty to the 
 British crown, and when the Governor of Bombay drives 
 in to his office in the morning or drives back again to his 
 lovely home at night, his carriage is surrounded by a 
 squad of those tawny warriors, who ride as well as they 
 look. 
 
 About half-way on the road to the government house is 
 the Gymkhana, and I venture to say that nobody who has 
 not been in India can guess what that means. And if you 
 want another conundrum, what is a chotohazree? It is 
 customary for smart people to have their chotohazree at 
 the Gymkhana, and I think that you would be pleased to 
 join them after taking the beautiful drive which leads to 
 the place. Nobody knows what the word was derived 
 from, but it is used to describe a country club — a bung- 
 alow hidden under a beautiful grove on the brow of a cliff 
 that overhangs the bay — with all of the appurtenances, 
 golf links, tennis courts, cricket grounds, racquet courts 
 and indoor gymnasium, and everybody stops there on 
 their afternoon drive to have chotohazree, which is the 
 local term for afternoon tea and for early morning coffee. 
 
 There are peculiar customs in Bombay. The proper 
 time for making visits everywhere in India is between ii 
 
THE CITY OF BOMBAY 35 
 
 a. m. and i :30 p. m., and fashionable ladies are always 
 at home between those hours and seldom at any other. It 
 seems unnatural, because they are the hottest of the day. 
 One would think that common sense as well as comfort 
 would induce people to stay at home at noon and make 
 themselves as cool as possible. In other tropical coun- 
 tries these are the hours of the siesta, the noonday nap, 
 which is as common and as necessary as breakfast or din- 
 ner, and none but a lunatic would think of calling upon a 
 friend after 11 in the morning or before 3 in the after- 
 noon. It would be as ridiculous as to return a social visit 
 at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, and the same reasons 
 which govern that custom ought to apply in India as well 
 as in Egypt, Cuba or Brazil. But here ladies put on their 
 best gowns, order their carriages, take their card cases, 
 and start out in the burning noontide glare to return 
 visits and make formal dinner and party calls. Strangers 
 are expected to do the same, and if you have letters of in- 
 troduction you are expected to present them during those 
 hours, and not at any other time. In the cool of the day, 
 after 5 o'clock, everybody who owns or can hire a car- 
 riage goes out to drive, and usually stops at the Gym- 
 khana in the country or at the Yacht Club in the city for 
 chotohazree. It is a good custom to admit women to 
 clubs as they do here. The wives and daughters of mem- 
 bers have every privilege, and can give tea parties and 
 luncheons in the clubhouses, while on certain evenings of 
 the week a band is brought from the miUtary barracks 
 and everybody of any account in European society is ex- 
 pected to be present. Tables are spread over the lawn, 
 and are engaged in advance by ladies, who sit behind 
 them, receive visits and pour tea just as they would do in 
 their own houses. It is a very pleasant custom. 
 
36 MODERN INDIA 
 
 All visitors who intend to remain in Bombay for any 
 length of time are expected to call upon the governor and 
 his wife, but it is not necessary for them to drive out to 
 Malabar Point for such a purpose. On a table in the re- 
 ception room of the government building down-town are 
 two books in which you write your name and address, 
 and that is considered equivalent to a formal visit. One 
 book is intended exclusively for those who have been 
 "presented" and by signing it they are reminding his ex- 
 cellency and her excellency of their continued existence 
 and notifying them where invitations to dinners and balls 
 can reach them. The other book is designed for strangers 
 and travelers, who inscribe their names and professions, 
 where they live when they are at home, how long they 
 expect to be in Bombay and where they are stopping. 
 Anybody who desires can sign this book and the act is 
 considered equivalent to a call upon the governor. If the 
 caller has a letter of introduction to His Excellency he 
 can leave it, with a card, in charge of the clerk who looks 
 after the visitors' book, and if he desires to see the gov- 
 ernor personally for business or social reasons he can ex- 
 press that desire upon a sheet of note paper, which will 
 be attached to the letter of introduction and delivered 
 some time during the day. The latter, if he is so disposed 
 will then give the necessary instructions and an aide-de- 
 camp will send a "chit," as they call a note over here, in- 
 viting the traveler to call at an hour named. There is a 
 great deal of formality in official and social life. The 
 ceremonies and etiquette are modeled upon those of the 
 royal palaces in England, and the governor of each 
 province, as well as the viceroy of India in Calcutta, has 
 his little court. 
 
 A different code of etiquette must be followed in social 
 
THE CITY OF BOMBAY 37 
 
 relations with natives, because they do not usually open 
 their houses to strangers. Letters of introduction should 
 be sent with cards by messengers or through the mails. 
 Then, if the gentleman to whom they are addressed de- 
 sires, he will call at your hotel. Many of the wealthier 
 natives, and especially the Parsees, are adopting European 
 customs, but the more conservative Hindus still adhere to 
 their traditional exclusive habits, their families are in- 
 visible and never mentioned, and strangers are never ad- 
 mitted to their homes. 
 
 Natives are not admitted to the European clubs. There 
 is no mingling of the races in society, except in a few iso- 
 lated cases of wealthy families, who have been educated 
 in Europe and have adopted European customs. While 
 the same prejudice does not exist theoretically, there is 
 actually a social gulf as wide and as deep as that which 
 lies between white and black families in Savannah or 
 New Orleans. Occasionally there is a marriage between 
 a European and a native, but the social consequences 
 have not encouraged others to imitate the example. Such 
 unions are not approved by public sentiment in either 
 race, and are not usually attended with happiness. Some 
 of the Parsees, who are always excepted, and are treated 
 as a distinct race and community, mingle with Europeans 
 to a certain degree, but even in their case the line is 
 sharply drawn. 
 
 The native district of Bombay is not so dirty nor so 
 densely populated as in most other Indian cities. The 
 streets are wider and some of them will admit of a car- 
 riage, although the cross-streets are nearly all too narrow. 
 The houses are from three to five stories in height, built 
 of brick or stone, with overhanging balconies and broad 
 eaves. Sometimes the entire front and rear are of lattice 
 
38 MODERN INDIA 
 
 work, the side walls being solid. Few of them are plas- 
 tered, ceilings are unknown and partitions, for the sake 
 of promoting circulation, seldom go more than half way 
 to the top of a room. No glass is used, but every window 
 has heavy blinds as a protection from the hot air and the 
 rays of the sun. While our taste does not approve the 
 arrangements in many cases, experience has taught the 
 people of India how to live through the hot summers with 
 the greatest degree of comfort, and anyone who attempts 
 to introduce innovations is apt to make mistakes. The 
 fronts of many of the houses are handsomely carved and 
 decorated, the columns and pillars and brackets which 
 support the balconies, the railings, the door frames, the 
 eaves and architraves, are often beautiful examples of the 
 carvers' skill, and the exterior walls are usually painted in 
 gay colors and fanciful designs. Within doors the houses 
 look very bare to us, and contain few comforts. 
 
 The lower floor of the house is commonly used for a 
 shop, and dififerent lines of business are classified and 
 gathered in the same neighborhood. The food market, 
 the grocery and provision dealers, the dealers in cotton 
 goods and other fabrics, the silk merchants, the shoe and 
 leather men, the workers in copper and brass, the gold- 
 smiths, jewelers and dealers in precious stones each have 
 their street or quarter, which is a great convenience to 
 purchasers, and scattered among them are frequent cook- 
 shops and eating places, which do not resemble our res- 
 taurants in any way, but have a large patronage. A con- 
 siderable portion of the population of Bombay, and the 
 same is true of all other Indian cities, depends upon these 
 cook-shops for food as a measure of economy and con- 
 venience. People can send out for dinner, lunch, or 
 breakfast at any hour, and have it served by their own 
 
THE CITY OF BOMBAY 39 
 
 servants without being troubled to keep up a kitchen or 
 buy fuel. 
 
 There are said to be 6,000 dealers in jewelry and 
 precious stones in the city of Bombay, and they all seem 
 to be doing a flourishing business, chiefly with the natives, 
 who are very fond of display and invest their money in 
 precious stones and personal adornments of gold and sil- 
 ver, which are safer and give more satisfaction than 
 banks. 
 
 You can see specimens of every race and nation in the 
 native city, nearly always in their own distinctive cos- 
 tumes, and they are the source of never-ending interest — 
 Arabs, Persians, Afghans, Rajputs, Parsees, Chinese, 
 Japanese, Malays, Lascars, Negroes from Zanzibar, Mad- 
 agascar and the Congo, Abyssinians. Nubians, Sikhs, 
 Thibetans, Burmese, Singalese, Siamese and Bengalis 
 mingle with Jews, Greeks and Europeans on common 
 terms, and, unlike the population of most eastern cities, 
 the people of Bombay always seem to be busy. 
 
 Many enterprises usually left for the municipal author- 
 ities of a city to carry on cannot be undertaken by the 
 government of India because of the laws of caste, re- 
 ligious customs and fanatical prejudices of the people. 
 The Hindu allows no man to enter his home ; the women 
 of a Mohammedan household are kept in seclusion, the 
 teachings of the priests are contrary to modern sanitary 
 regulations, and if the municipal authorities should con- 
 demn a block of buildings and tear it down, or discover a 
 nuisance and attempt to remove it, they might easily pro- 
 voke a riot and perhaps a revolution. This has happened 
 frequently. During the last plague a public tumult had 
 to be quelled by soldiers at a large cost of life because of 
 the efforts of the government to isolate and quarantine in- 
 
40 MODERN INDIA 
 
 fected persons and houses. These pecuHar conditions 
 suggested in Bombay the advantage of a semi-pubHc 
 body called "The Improvement Trust," which was organ- 
 ized a few years ago by Lord Sandhurst, then governor. 
 The original object was to clear out the slums and in- 
 fected places after the last plague, to tear down blocks of 
 rotten and filthy tenement-houses and erect new buildings 
 on the ground ; to widen the streets, to let air and light 
 into moldering, festering sink holes of poverty, vice and 
 wretchedness ; to lay sewers and furnish a water supply, 
 and to redeem and regenerate certain portions of the city 
 that were a menace to the public health and morals. This 
 work was intrusted to twelve eminent citizens, represent- 
 ing each of the races and all of the large interests in Bom- 
 bay, who commanded the respect and enjoyed the confi- 
 dence of the fanatical clement of the people, and would be 
 permitted to do many things and introduce innovations 
 that would not be tolerated if suggested by foreigners, 
 or the government. 
 
 After the special duty which they were organized to 
 perform had been accomplished The Improvement Trust 
 was made permanent as a useful agency to undertake 
 works of public utility of a similar character which the 
 government could not carry on. The twelve trustees 
 serve without pay or allowances ; not one of them receives 
 a penny of compensation for his time or trouble, or even 
 the reimbursement of incidental expenses made necessary 
 in the performance of his duties. This is an exhibition of 
 unusual patriotism, but it is considered perfectly natural 
 in Bombay. To carry out the plans of the Trust, salaried 
 officials are employed, and a large force is necessary. 
 The trustees have assumed great responsibilities, and sup- 
 ply the place of a board of public works, with larger pow- 
 
THE CITY OF BOMBAY 41 
 
 ers than are usually granted to such officials. The mu- 
 nicipality has turned over to them large tracts of real 
 estate, some of which has been improved with great 
 profit ; it has secured funds by borrowing from banks 
 upon the personal credit of its members, and by issuing 
 bonds which sell at a high premium, and the money has 
 been used in the improvement of the city, in the introduc- 
 tion of sanitary reforms, in building model tenements for 
 the poor, in creating institutions of public necessity or 
 advantage and by serving the people in various other 
 ways. 
 
 The street car system of Bombay belongs to an Amer- 
 ican company, having been organized by a Mr. Kittridge, 
 who came over here as consul during President Lincoln's 
 administration. Recognizing the advantage of street cars, 
 in 1874 he interested some American capitalists in the en- 
 terprise, got a franchise, laid rails on a few of the prin- 
 cipal streets and has been running horse cars ever since. 
 
 The introduction of electricity and the extension of the 
 street railway system is imperatively needed. Distances 
 are very great in the foreign section, and during the hot 
 months, from March to November, it is impossible for 
 white men to walk in the sun, so that everybody is com- 
 pelled to keep or hire a carriage ; while on the other hand 
 the density of the population in other sections is so great 
 as to be a continual and increasing public peril. Bombay 
 has more than 800,000 inhabitants, two-thirds of whom 
 are packed into very narrow limits, and in the native 
 quarters it is estimated that there is one human being to 
 every ten square yards of space. It will be realized that 
 this is a dangerous condition of affairs for a city that is 
 constantly afflicted with epidemics and in which con- 
 tagious diseases always prevail. The extension of the 
 
42 MODERN INDIA 
 
 street car service would do something to relieve this con- 
 gestion axid scatter many of the people out among the 
 suburbs, but the Orientals always swarm together and 
 pack themselves away in most uncomfortable and un- 
 healthful limits, and it will always be a great danger when 
 the plagues or the cholera come around. Multitudes have 
 no homes at all. They have no property except the one or 
 two strips of dirty cotton which the police require them to 
 wear for clothing. They lie down to sleep anywhere, in 
 the parks, on the sidewalks, in hallways, and drawing 
 their robes over their faces are utterly indifferent to what 
 happens. They get their meals at the cook shops for a 
 few farthings, eat when they are hungry, sleep when they 
 are sleepy and go through life without a fixed abode. 
 
 In addition to the street car company the United States 
 is represented by the Standard Oil Company, the Va- 
 cuum Oil Company, and the New York Export and Im- 
 port Company. Other American firms of merchants and 
 manufacturers have resident agents, but they are mostly 
 Englishmen or Germans. 
 
 There is, however, very little demand in India for agri- 
 cultural implements, although three-fourths of the people 
 are employed in tilling the soil. Each farmer owns or 
 rents a very small piece of ground, hardly big enough 
 to justify the use of anything but the simple, primitive 
 tools that have been handed down to him through long 
 lines of ancestors for 3,cxx) years. Nearly all his imple- 
 ments are home-made, or come from the village black- 
 smith shop, and are of the rudest, most awkward descrip- 
 tion. They plow with a crooked stick, they dig ditches 
 with their fingers, and carry everything that has to be 
 moved in little baskets on their heads. The harvesting is 
 done with a primitive-looking sickle, and root crops are 
 
THE CITY OF BOMBAY 43 
 
 taken out of the ground with a tvvo-tined fork with a 
 handle only a foot long. The Hindu does everything in a 
 squatting posture, hence he uses only short-handled tools. 
 Fifty or seventy-five cents each would easily replace 
 the outfit of three-fourths of the farmers in the empire. 
 Occasionally there is a rajah with large estates under cul- 
 tivation upon which modern machinery is used, but even 
 there its introduction is discouraged ; first, because the 
 natives are very conservative and disinclined to adopt 
 new means and new methods ; and, second, and what is 
 more important, every labor-saving implement and ma- 
 chine that comes into the country deprives hundreds 
 of poor coolies of employment. 
 
 The development of the material resources of India is 
 slowly going on, and mechanical industries are being 
 gradually established, with the encouragement of the 
 government, for the purpose of attracting the surplus 
 labor from the farms and villages and employing it in 
 factories and mills, and in the mines of southern India, 
 which are supposed to be very rich. These enterprises 
 offer limited possibilities for the sale of machinery, 
 and American-made machines are recognized as superior 
 to all others. There is also a demand for everything that 
 can be used by the foreign population, which in India is 
 numbered somewhere about a million people, but the 
 trade is controlled largely by British merchants who have 
 life-long connections at home, and it is difficult to remove 
 their prejudices or persuade them to see the superiority 
 of American goods. Nevertheless, our manufactories, 
 on their merits, are gradually getting a footing in the 
 market. 
 
 When Mark Twain was in Bombay, a few years ago, 
 he met with an unusual experience for a mortal. He 
 
44 MODERN INDIA 
 
 was a guest of the late Mr, Tata, a famous Parsee mer- 
 chant, and received a great deal of attention. All the 
 foreigners in the city knew him, and had read his books, 
 and there are in Bombay hundreds of highly cultivated 
 and educated natives. He hired a servant, as every 
 stranger does, and was delighted when he discovered a 
 native by the name of Satan among the numerous appli- 
 cants. He engaged him instantly on his name ; no other 
 recommendation was necessary. To have a servant by 
 the name of Satan was a privilege no humorist had ever 
 before enjoyed, and the possibilities to his imagination 
 were without limit. And it so happened that on the very 
 day Satan was employed, Prince Aga Khan, the head of 
 a Persian sect of Mohammedans, who is supposed to 
 have a divine origin and will be worshiped as a god when 
 he dies, came to call on Mr. Clemens. Satan was in at- 
 tendance, and when he appeared with the card upon a 
 tray, Mr. Clemens asked if he knew anything about the 
 caller ; if he could give him some idea who he was, be- 
 cause, when a prince calls in person upon an American 
 tourist, it is considered a distinguished honor. Aga Khan 
 is well known to everybody in Bombay, and one of the 
 most conspicuous men in the city. He is a great favorite 
 in the foreign colony, and is as able a scholar as he is a 
 charming gentleman. Satan, with all the reverence of 
 his race, appreciated the religious aspect of the visitor 
 more highly than any other, and in reply to the question 
 of his new master explained that Aga Khan was a god. 
 It was a very gratifying meeting for both gentlemen, 
 who found each other entirely congenial. Aga Khan has 
 a keen sense of humor and had read everything Mark 
 Twain had written, while, on the other hand, the latter 
 was distinctly impressed with the personality of his caller 
 
THE CITY OF BOMBAY 45 
 
 That evening, when he came down to dinner, his host 
 asked how he had passed the day: 
 
 "I have had the time of my life," was the prompt re- 
 ply, "and the greatest honor I have ever experienced. 
 I have hired Satan for a servant, and a God called to tell 
 me how much he liked Huck Finn." 
 
Ill 
 
 SERVANTS, HOTELS AND CAVE TEMPLES 
 
 Everybody who comes to India must have a personal 
 servant, a native who performs the duty of valet, waiter 
 and errand boy and does other things that he is told. It 
 is said to be impossible to do without one and I am in- 
 clined to think that is true, for it is a fixed custom of the 
 country, and when a stranger attempts to resist, or avoid 
 or reform the customs of a country his trouble begins. 
 Many of the Indian hotels expect guests to bring their 
 own servants — to furnish their own chambermaids and 
 waiters — hence are short-handed, and the traveler who 
 hasn't provided himself with that indispensable piece of 
 baggage has to look after himself. On the railways a 
 native servant is even more important, for travelers are 
 required to carry their own bedding, make their own 
 beds and furnish their own towels. The company pro- 
 vides a bench for them to sleep on, similar to those we 
 have in freight cabooses at home, a wash room and some- 
 times water. But if you want to wash your face and 
 hands in the morning it is always better to send your ser- 
 vant to the station master before the trains starts to see 
 that the tank is filled. Then a naked Hindu with a goat- 
 skin of water comes along, fills the tank and stands 
 around touching his forehead respectfully every time you 
 look his way until you give him a penny. The eating 
 houses along the railway lines also expect travelers to 
 
 46 
 
SERVANTS, HOTELS AND TEMPLES 47 
 
 bring their own servants, who raid their shelves and 
 tables for food and drink and take it out to the cars. That 
 is another of the customs of the country. 
 
 For these reasons a special occupation has been cre- 
 ated, peculiar to India — that of travelers' servants, or 
 "bearers" as they are called. I have never been able to 
 satisfy myself as to the derivation of the name. Some 
 wise men say that formerly, before the days of railroads, 
 people were carried about in sedan chairs, as they are still 
 in China, and the men who carried them were called 
 "bearers ;" others contend that the name is due to the 
 circumstance that these servants bear the white man's 
 burden, which is not at all likely. They certainly do not 
 bear his baggage. They hire coolies to do it. A self-re- 
 specting "bearer" will employ somebody at your expense 
 to do everything he can avoid doing and will never de- 
 mean himself by carrying a trunk, or a bag, or even a par- 
 cel. You give him money to pay incidental expenses, for 
 you don't want him bothering you all the time, and he 
 hires other natives to do the work. But his wages are 
 small. A first-class bearer, who can talk English and 
 cook, pack trunks, look after tickets, luggage and other 
 business of travel, serve as guide at all places of interest 
 and compel merchants to pay him a commission upon 
 everything his employer purchases, can be obtained for 
 forty-five rupees, which is $15 a month, and keep him- 
 self. He gets his board for nothing at the hotels for 
 waiting on his master, and on the pretext that he induced 
 him to come there. But you have to pay his railway fare, 
 third class, and give him $3 to buy warm clothing. He 
 never buys it, because he does not need it, but that's an- 
 other custom of the country. Then again, at the end of 
 the engagement he expects a present — a. little backsheesh 
 
48 MODERN INDIA 
 
 — two or three dollars, and a certificate that yon are 
 pleased with his services. 
 
 That is the cost of the highest priced man, who can 
 be guide as well as servant, but you can get "bearers" 
 ■with lesser accomplishments for almost any wages, down 
 as low as $2 a month. But they are not only worthless ; 
 they actually imperil your soul because of their exasperat- 
 ing ways and general cussedness. You often hear that 
 servants are cheap in India, that families pay their cooks 
 $3 a month and their housemen $2, which is true ; but 
 they do not earn any more. One Swede girl will do as 
 much work as a dozen Hindus, and do it much better 
 than they, and, what is even more important to the house- 
 wife, can be relied upon. In India women never go out 
 to service except as nurses, but in every household you 
 will find not less than seven or eight men servants, and 
 sometimes twenty, who receive from $1 to $5 a month 
 each in wages, but the total amounts up, and they have to 
 be fed, and they will steal, every one of them, and lie and 
 loaf, and cause an infinite amount of trouble and confu- 
 sion, simply because they are cheap. High-priced ser- 
 vants usually are an economy — good things always cost 
 money, but give better satisfaction. 
 
 Another common mistake is that Indian hotel prices 
 are low. They are just as high as anywhere else in the 
 world for the accommodations. I have noticed that 
 wherever you go the same amount of luxury and com- 
 fort costs about the same amount of money. You pay 
 for all you get in an Indian hotel. The service is bad 
 because travelers are expected to bring their own ser- 
 vants to answer their calls, to look after their rooms 
 and make their beds, and in some places to wait on them 
 in the dining-room. There are no women about the 
 
SERVANTS, HOTELS AND TEMPLES 49 
 
 houses. Men do everything, and if they have been 
 well trained as cleaners the hotel is neat. If they 
 have been badly trained the contrary may be ex- 
 pected. The same may be said of the cooking. The 
 landlord and his guest are entirely at the mercy of the 
 cook, and the food is prepared according to his ability 
 and education. You get very little beef because cows 
 are sacred and steers are too valuable to kill. The mut- 
 ton is excellent, and there is plenty of it. You cannot get 
 better anywhere, and at places near the sea they serve 
 an abundance of fish. Vegetables are plenty and are us- 
 ually well cooked. The coffee is poor and almost every- 
 body drinks tea. You seldom sit down to a hotel table in 
 India without finding chickens cooked in a palatable way 
 for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and eggs are equally 
 good and plenty. The bread is usually bad, and every- 
 body calls for toast. The deserts are usually quite good. 
 
 It takes a stranger some time to become accustomed 
 to barefooted servants, but few of the natives in India 
 of whatever class wear shoes. Rich people, business men, 
 merchants, bankers and others who come in contact on 
 equal terms with the foreign population usually wear 
 them in the streets, but kick them off and go around bare- 
 footed as soon as they reach their own offices or their 
 homes. Although a servant may be dressed in elaborate 
 livery, he never wears shoes. The butlers, footmen, ush- 
 ers and other servants at the government house in Cal- 
 cutta, at the viceregal lodge at Simla, at the palace of the 
 governor of Bombay, and the residences of the other high 
 officials, are all barefooted. 
 
 Everybody with experience agrees that well-trained 
 Hindu servants are quick, attentive and respectful and in- 
 
50 MODERN INDIA 
 
 genious. F. Marion Crawford in "Mr. Isaacs" says: "It 
 has always been a mystery to me how native servants 
 manage ahvays to turn up at the right moment. You 
 say to your man, 'Go there and wait for me/ and you 
 arrive and find him waiting; though how he transferred 
 himself thither, with his queer-looking bundle, and his 
 lota and cooking utensils and your best teapot wrapped 
 up in a newspaper and ready for use, and with all the 
 hundred and one things that a native servant contrives 
 to carry about w'ithout breaking or losing one of them, 
 is an unsolved puzzle. Yet there he is, clean and grin- 
 ning as ever, and if he were not clean and grinning 
 and provided with tea and cheroots, you would not 
 keep him in your service a day, though you would be in- 
 capable of looking half so spotless and pleased under the 
 same circumstances yourself." 
 
 Every upper servant in an Indian household has to 
 have an under servant to assist him. A butler will not 
 wash dishes or dust or sweep. He will go to market and 
 wait on the table, but nothing more. A cook must have 
 a coolie to wash the kitchen utensils, and wait on him. 
 He will do nothing but prepare the food for the table. 
 A coachman will do nothing but drive. He must have 
 a coolie to take care of the horse, and if there are two 
 horses the owner must hire another stable man, for no 
 Hindu hostler can take care of more than one, at least he 
 is not willing to do so. An American friend has told me 
 of his experience trying to break down one of the customs 
 of the East, and compelling one native to groom two 
 horses. It is too long and tearful to relate here, for he 
 was finally compelled to give in and hire a man for every 
 horse and prove the truth of Kipling's poem : 
 
SERVANTS, HOTELS AND TEMPLES 51 
 
 "It is not good for the Christian race 
 To worry the Aryan brown ; 
 
 For the white man riles, 
 
 And the brown man smiles, 
 And it weareth the Christian 
 
 And the end of the fight 
 
 Is a tombstone white 
 With the name of the late deceased. 
 
 And the epitaph clear: 
 
 A fool lies here, 
 Who tried to hustle the East." 
 
 That's the fate of everybody who goes up against es- 
 tablished customs. And so we hired a "bearer." 
 
 There were plenty of candidates. They appeared in 
 swarms before our trunks had come up from the steamer, 
 and continued to come by ones and twos until we had 
 made a selection. They camped outside our rooms and 
 watched every movement we made. They sprang up in 
 our way from behind columns and gate-posts whenever 
 we left the hotel or returned to it. They accosted us in 
 the street with insinuating smiles and politely opened the 
 carriage door as we returned from our drives. They 
 were of all sizes and ages, castes and religions, and, 
 strange to say, most of them had become Christians and 
 Protestants from their strong desire to please. Each had 
 a bunch of "chits," as they call them — recommendations 
 from previous employers, testifying to their intelligence, 
 honesty and fidelity, and insisted upon our reading them. 
 Finally, in self-defense, we engaged a stalwart Moham- 
 medan wearing a snow-white robe, a monstrous turban 
 and a big bushy beard. He is an imposing spectacle ; he 
 moves like an emperor ; his poses are as dignified as those 
 
52 MODERN INDIA 
 
 of the Sheik el Islam when he lifts his hands to bestow 
 a blessing. And we engaged Ram Zon Abdullet Miit- 
 mammet on his shape. 
 
 It was a mistake. Beauty is skin deep. No one can 
 judge merit by outside appearances, as many persons can 
 ascertain by glancing in a mirror. Ram Zon, and that 
 was what we called him for short, was a splendid illusion. 
 It turned out that he could not scrape together enough 
 English to keep an account of his expenditures and had 
 to trust to his memory, which is very defective in money 
 matters. He cannot read or write, he cannot carry a mes- 
 sage or receive one ; he is no use as a guide, for, although 
 information and ideas may be bulging from his noble 
 brow, he lacks the power to communicate them, and, 
 worse than all, he is surly, lazy and a constitutional 
 kicker. He was always hanging around when we didn't 
 want him, and when we did want him he was never to be 
 found. 
 
 Ram had not been engaged two hours before he ap- 
 peared in our sitting room, enveloped in a dignity that 
 permeated the entire hotel, stood erect like a soldier, 
 brought his hand to his forehead and held it there for a 
 long time — the salute of great respect — and gave me a 
 sealed note, which I opened and found to read as follows : 
 
 "Most Honored Sir : — I most humbly beg to inform 
 you this to your kind consideration and generousitee and 
 trusting which will submit myself to your grant benevo- 
 lence for avoid the troublesomeness to you and your fam- 
 ilies, that the servant Ram Zon you have been so honor- 
 able and benovelent to engage is a great rogue and con- 
 jurer. He will make your mind buzzling and will 
 steal your properties, and can run away with you mid- 
 way. In proof you please touch his right hand shoulder 
 
SERVANTS, HOTELS AND TEMPLES 53 
 
 and see what and how big charm he has. Such a bad 
 temperature man you have in your service. Besides he 
 only grown up taller and looks like a dandee as it true 
 but he is not fit to act in case not to disappeared. I beg 
 of you kindly consult about those matters and select and 
 choose much experienced man than him otherwise cer- 
 tainly you could be put in to great danger by his conjur- 
 ing and into troubles. 
 
 "Hoping to excuse me for this troubles I taking, 
 though he is my caste and countryman much like not to 
 do so, but his temperature is not good therefore liable to 
 your honourablesness, etc., etc." 
 
 When I told Ram about this indictment, he stoutly de- 
 nied the charges, saying that it was customary for 
 envious "bearers" to say bad things of one another when 
 they lost good jobs. We did not feel of his right arm and 
 he did not try to conjure us, but his temperature is cer- 
 tainly very bad, and he soon became a nuisance, which we 
 abated by paying him a month's wages and sending him 
 off. Then, upon the recommendation of the consul we 
 got a treasure, although he does not show it in his looks. 
 
 The hotels of India have a very bad name. There are 
 several good ones in the empire, however, and every ex- 
 perienced traveler and every clubman you meet can tell 
 you the names of all of them. Hence it is not impossible 
 to keep a good hotel in India with profit. The best are at 
 Lucknow and Darjeeling. Those at Caucutta are the 
 worst, although one would think that the vice-regal cap- 
 ital would have pride enough to entertain its many visit- 
 ors decently. 
 
 Bombay at last has such a hotel as ought to be found 
 in Calcutta and all the other large cities, an architectural 
 monument, and an ornament to the country. It is due to 
 
54 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the enterprise of the late Mr. J. N. Tata, a Parsec mer- 
 chant and manufacturer, and it is to be hoped that its 
 success will be sufficient to stimulate similar enterprises 
 elsewhere. It would be much better for the people of India 
 to coax tourists over here by offering them comforts, lux- 
 uries and pleasures than to allow the few who do come, 
 to go away grumbling. The thousands who visit Cairo 
 every winter are attracted there by the hotels, for no city 
 has better ones, and no hotels give more for the money. 
 Hence they pay big profits, and are a source of prosper- 
 ity to the city, as well as a pleasure to the idle public. 
 
 The most interesting study in Bombay is the people, 
 but there are several excursions into the country around 
 well worth making, particularly those that take you to 
 the cave temples of the Hindus, which have been exca- 
 vated with infinite labor and pains out of the solid rock. 
 With their primitive tools the people of ancient times 
 chiseled great caverns in the sides of rocky cliffs and hills 
 and fashioned them after the conventional designs of 
 temples, with columns, pillars, vaulted ceilings, platforms 
 for their idols and pulpits for their priests. The nearest 
 of these wonderful examples of stone cutting is on an 
 island in the harbor of Bombay, called Elephanta, because 
 at one time a colossal stone elephant stood on the slope 
 near the landing place, but it was destroyed by the Portu- 
 guese several centuries ago. The island rises about 600 
 feet above the water, its summit is crowned with a glori- 
 ous growth of forest, its sides are covered with dense 
 jungles, and the beach is skirted by mangrove swamps. 
 You get there by a steam launch provided by the mana- 
 gers of your hotel, or by Cook & Sons, the tourist agents, 
 whenever a sufficiently large party is willing to pay them 
 for their trouble. Or if you prefer a sail you can hire one 
 
I SERVANTS, HOTELS AND TEMPLES 55 
 
 of the native boats with a pecuhar rigging and usually 
 get a good breeze in the morning, although it is apt to die 
 down in the afternoon, and you have to take your chances 
 of staying out all night. The only landing place at Ele- 
 phanta Island is a wall of concrete which has been built 
 out across the beach into four or five feet of water, and 
 you have to step gingerly lest you slip on the slime. At 
 the end of the wall a solid stairway cut in the hillside 
 leads up to the temple. It was formerly used daily by 
 thousands of worshipers, but in this degenerate age no- 
 body but tourists ever climb it. Every boat load that 
 lands is greeted by a group of bright-eyed children, who 
 follow the sahibs (gentlemen) and mem-sahibs (ladies) 
 up the stairs, begging for backsheesh and offering for 
 sale curios beetles and other insects of brilliant hues that 
 abound on the island. Coolies are waiting at the foot of 
 the stairs with chairs fastened to poles, in which they will 
 carry a person up the steep stairway to the temple for 10 
 cents. Reaching the top you find a solid fence with a 
 gateway, which is opened by a retired army officer who 
 has been appointed custodian of the place and collects 
 small fees, which are devoted to keeping the temples 
 clean and in repair. 
 
 The island is dedicated to Siva, the demon god of the 
 Hindus, and it is therefore appropriate that its swamps 
 and jungles should abound with poisonous reptiles and 
 insects. The largest of the several temples is 130 feet 
 square and from 32 to 58 feet high, an artificial cave chis- 
 eled out of the granite mountain side. The roof is sus- 
 tained by sixteen pilasters and twenty-six massive fluted 
 pillars. In a recess in the center is a gigantic figure of 
 Siva in his character as The Destroyer. His face is 
 turned to the east and wears a stern, commanding expres- 
 
56 MODERN INDIA 
 
 sion. His head-dress is elaborate and crowned by a tiara 
 beautifully carved. In one hand he holds a citron and in 
 the other the head of a cobra, which is twisted around 
 his arm and is reaching towards his face. His neck is 
 adorned with strings of pearls, from which hangs a pen- 
 dant in the form of a heart. Another necklace supports a 
 human skull, the peculiar symbol of Siva, with twisted 
 snakes growing from the head instead of hair. This is 
 the great image of the temple and represents the most 
 cruel and revengeful of all the Hindu gods. Ten centu- 
 ries ago he wore altogether a different character, but 
 human sacrifices have always been made to propitiate 
 him. Around the walls of the cave are other gods of 
 smaller stature representing several of the most prom- 
 inent and powerful of the Hindu pantheon, all of them 
 chiseled from the solid granite. There are several cham- 
 bers or chapels also for different forms of worship, and a 
 well which receives its water from some mysterious 
 source, and is said to be very deep. 
 
 The Portuguese did great damage here several centu- 
 ries ago in a war with India, for they fired several cannon 
 balls straight into the mouth of the cave, which carried 
 away several of the columns and destroyed the ornamen- 
 tation of others, but the Royal Asiatic Society has taken 
 the trouble to make careful and accurate repairs. 
 
 Although the caves at Elephanta are wonderful, they 
 are greatly inferior in size and beauty to a larger group 
 at Ellora, a day's journey by train from Bombay, and 
 after that a carriage or horseback ride of two hours. 
 There are lOO cave temples, carved out of the solid rock 
 between the second and the tenth centuries. They are 
 scattered along the base of a range of beautifully wooded 
 hills about 500 feet above the plain, and the amount of 
 
SERVANTS, HOTELS AND TEMPLES 57 
 
 labor and patience expended in their construction is ap- 
 palling, especially when one considers that the men who 
 made them were without the appliances and tools of mod- 
 ern times, knew nothing of explosives and were depend- 
 ent solely upon chisels of flint and other stones. The 
 greatest and finest of them is as perfect in its details and 
 as elaborate in its ornamentations as the cathedrals at 
 Milan or Toledo, except that it has been cut out of a 
 single piece of stone instead of being built up of many 
 small pieces. 
 
 The architect made his plans with the most prodigal 
 detail and executed them with the greatest perfection. 
 He took a solid rock, an absolute monolith, and chiseled 
 out of it a cathedral 365 feet long, 192 feet wide and 96 
 feet high, with four rows of mighty columns sustaining 
 a vaulted roof that is covered with pictures in relief illus- 
 trating the power and the adventures and the achieve- 
 ments of his gods. It would accommodate 5,000 wor- 
 shippers. Around the walls he left rough projections, 
 which were afterward carved into symbolical figures and 
 images, eight, ten and twelve feet high, of elephants 
 lions, tigers, oxen, rams, swans and eagles, larger than 
 life. Corner niches and recesses have been enriched 
 with the most intricate ornamentation, and in them, still 
 of the same rock, without the introduction of an atom of 
 outside material, the sculptors chiseled the figures of forty 
 or more of the principal Hindu deities. And on each of 
 the four sides is a massive altar carved out of the side 
 of the cliff with the most ornate and elaborate traceries 
 and other embellishment. 
 
 Indeed, my pen is not capable of describing these most 
 wonderful achievements of human genius and patience. 
 But all of them have been described in great detail and 
 
58 MODERN INDIA 
 
 with copious illustrations in books that refer to nothing: 
 else. I can only say that they are the most wonderful of 
 all the human monuments in India. 
 
 "From one vast mount of solid stone 
 
 A mighty temple has been cored 
 
 By nut-brown children of the sun, 
 
 When stars were newly bright, and blithe 
 
 Of song along the rim of dawn — 
 
 A mighty monolith." 
 
 The thirty principal temples are scattered along the 
 rocky mountain side within a distance of two miles, and 
 seventy-nine others are in the immediate neighborhood. 
 The smallest of the principal group is 90 feet long, 40 
 feet wide, with a roof 40 feet high sustained by thirty- 
 four columns. They are all alike in one particular. No 
 mortar was used in their construction or any outside 
 material. Every atom of the walls and ceilings, the col- 
 umns, the altars and the images and ornaments 
 stands exectly where the Creator placed it at the birth 
 of the universe. 
 
 There are several groups of cave temples in the same 
 neighborhood. Some of them were made by the Budd- 
 hists, for it seems to have been fashionable in those days 
 to chisel places of worship out of the rocky hillsides in- 
 stead of erecting them in the open air, according to the or- 
 dinary rules of architecture. There are not less than 300 
 in western India which are believed to have been made 
 within a period of a thousand years. Archaeologists dis- 
 pute over their ages, just as they disagree about every- 
 thing else. Some claim that the first of the cave temples 
 antedates the Christian era : others declare that the oldest 
 was not begun for 300 years after Christ, but to the or- 
 
SERVANTS, HOTELS AND TEMPLES 59 
 
 dinary citizen these are questions of little significance. It 
 is not so important for us to know when this great work 
 was done, but it would be extremely gratifying if some- 
 body could tell us who did it — what genius first conceived 
 the idea of carving a magnificent house of worship out of 
 the heart of a mountain, and what means he used to ac- 
 complish the amazing results. 
 
 We would like to know for example, who made the de-. 
 signs of the Vishwa Karma, or carpenter's cave, one of 
 the most exquisite in India, a single excavation 85 by 45 
 feet in area and 35 feet high, which has an arched roof 
 similar to the Gothic chapels of England and a balcony or 
 gallery over a richly sculptured gateway very similar to 
 the organ loft of a modern church. At the upper end, sit- 
 ting cross-legged in a niche, is a figure four feet high, 
 with a serene and contemplative expression upon its face. 
 Because it has none of the usual signs and symbols and 
 ornaments that appertain to the different gods, archaeol- 
 ogists have pronounced it a figure of the founder of the 
 temple, who, according to a popular legend, carved it all 
 with his own hands, but there is nothing to indicate for 
 whom the statue was intended, and the various stories 
 told of it are pure conjectures that only exasperate 
 one who studies the details. Each stroke of the chisel up- 
 on the surface of the interior was as delicate and exact 
 as if a jewel instead of a granite mountain was being 
 carved. 
 
 There are temples to all of the great gods in the Hin- 
 du catalogue ; there are several in honor of Buddha, and 
 others for Jain, all more or less of the same design and 
 the same style of execution. Those who care to know 
 more about them can find full descriptions in Fergusson's 
 "Indian Architecture." 
 
6o MODERN INDIA 
 
 South of Bombay, on the coast, is the Uttlc Portuguese 
 colony of Goa, the oldest European settlement in India. 
 You will be surprised to know that there are four or five 
 of these colonies belonging to other European govern- 
 ments within the limits of British India, entirely inde- 
 pendent of the viceroy and the authority of Edward VII. 
 The French have two towns of limited area in Bengal, 
 one of them only an hour's ride from Calcutta. They are 
 entirely outside of the British jurisdiction and under the 
 authority of the French Republic, which has always been 
 respected. The Dutch have two colonies in India also, 
 and Goa, the most important of all, is subject to Por- 
 tugal. The territory is sixty-two miles long by forty 
 miles wide, and has a population of 446,982. The inhab- 
 itants are nearly all Roman Catholics, and the archbishop 
 of Goa is primate of the East, having jurisdiction over all 
 Roman Catholics between Cairo and Hong-Kong. 
 
 More than half of the population are converted Hin- 
 dus, descendants of the original occupants of the place, 
 who were overcome by the Duke of Albuquerque in 
 1 5 10, and after seventy or eighty years of fighting were 
 converted by the celebrated and saintly Jesuit missionary, 
 St. Francis Xavier. He lived and preached and died 
 in Goa, and was buried in the Church of the Good Jesus, 
 which was erected by him during the golden age of Por- 
 tugal — for at one time that little kingdom exercised a 
 military, political, ecclesiastical and commercial influence 
 throughout the world quite as great, comparatively 
 speaking, as that of Great Britain to-day. Goa was then 
 the most important city in the East, for its wealth and 
 commerce rivaled that of Genoa or Venice. It was as 
 large as Paris or London, and the viceroy lived in a pal- 
 ace as fine as that occupied by the king. But very little 
 
SERVANTS, HOTELS AND TEMPLES 6i 
 
 evidence of its former magnificence remains. Its gran- 
 deur was soon exhausted when the Dutch and the East 
 India Company came into competition with the Portu- 
 guese. The Latin race has never been tenacious either in 
 poHtics or commerce. Like the Spaniards, the Portu- 
 guese have no staying power, and after a struggle lasting 
 seventy years, all of the wide Portuguese possessions in 
 the East fell into the hands of the Dutch and the British, 
 and nothing is now left but Goa, with its ruins and re- 
 miniscences and the beautiful shrine of marble and jas- 
 per, which the Grand Duke of Tuscany erected in honor 
 of the first great missionary to the East. 
 
IV 
 
 THE EMPIRE OF INDIA 
 
 India is a great triangle, 1,900 miles across its great- 
 est length and an equal distance across its greatest 
 breadth. It extends from a region of perpetual snow in 
 the Himalayas, almost to the equator. The superficial 
 area is 1,766,642 square miles, and you can understand 
 better what that means when I tell you that the United 
 States has an area of 2,970,230 square miles, without 
 counting Alaska or Hawaii. India is about as large as 
 that portion of the United States lying east of a line 
 drawn southward along the western boundary of the Da- 
 kotas, Kansas and Texas. 
 
 The population of India in 1901 was 294,361,056 or 
 about one-fifth of the human race, and it comprises more 
 than 100 distinct nations and peoples in every grade of 
 civilization from absolute savages to the most complete 
 and complex commercial and social organizations. It has 
 every variety of climate from the tropical humidity along 
 the southern coast to the frigid cold of the moun- 
 tains ; peaks of ice, reefs of coral, impenetrable jungles 
 and bleak, treeless plains. One portion of its territory re- 
 cords the greatest rainfall of any spot on earth ; another, 
 of several hundred thousand square miles, is seldom wa- 
 tered with a drop of rain and is entirely dependent for 
 moisture upon the melting snows of the mountains. 
 Twelve thousands different kinds of animals are enu- 
 
 62 
 
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA 63 
 
 merated in its fauna, 28,000 plants in its flora, and the stat- 
 tistical survey prepared by the government fills 128 vol- 
 umes of the size of our census reports. One hundred and 
 eighteen distinct languages are spoken in various parts 
 of India and fifty-nine of these languages are spoken by 
 more than 100,000 people each. A large number of other 
 languages and dialects are spoken by different tribes and 
 clans of less than 100,000 population. The British Bible 
 Society has published the whole or parts of the Holy 
 Scriptures in forty-two languages which reach 220,- 
 000,000 people, but leave 74,000,000 without the Holy 
 Word. In order to give the Bible to the remainder of the 
 population of India it would be necessary to publish 108 
 additional translations, which the society has no money 
 and no men to prepare. From this little statement some 
 conception of the variety of the people of India may be 
 obtained, because each of the tribes and clans has its own 
 distinct organization and individuality, and each is prac- 
 tically a separate nation. 
 
 Language. Spoken by Language. Spoken by 
 
 Hindi 85,675,373 Malayalam 5,428,250 
 
 BengaH 41,343,762 Masalmani 3,669,390 
 
 Telugu 19,885,137 Sindhi 2,592,341 
 
 Marathi 18,892,875 Santhal 1,709,680 
 
 Punjabi 17,724,610 Western Pahari .1,523,098 
 
 Tamil 15,229,759 Assamese 1,435,820 
 
 Gujarathi 10,619,789 Gond i,379,58o 
 
 Kanarese 9,751,885 Central Pahari ..1,153,384 
 
 Uriya 9,010,957 Marwadi 1,147,480 
 
 Burmese 5,926,864 Pashtu 1,080,931 
 
 The Province of Bengal, for example, is nearly as 
 large as all our North Atlantic states combined, and con- 
 
64 MODERN INDIA 
 
 tains an area of 122,548 square miles. The Province of 
 Rajputana is even larger, and has a population of 74,- 
 744,886, almost as great as that of the entire United 
 States. IMadras has a population of 38,000,000, and the 
 central provinces 47,000,000, while several of the 160 dif- 
 ferent states into which India is divided have more than 
 10,000,000 each. 
 
 The population is divided according to religions as 
 follows : 
 
 Hindus 207,146,422 Sikhs 2,195,268 
 
 Alohammedans. 62,458,061 Jains 1,334,148 
 
 Buddhists 9,476,750 Parsees 94,190 
 
 Animistic 8,711,360 Jews 18,228 
 
 Christians .... 2,923,241 
 
 It will be interesting to know that of the Christians 
 enumerated at the last census 1,202,039 were Roman 
 Catholics, 453,612 belonged to the established Church of 
 England, 322,586 were orthodox Greeks, 220,863 were 
 Baptists, 155,455 Lutherans, 53,829 Presbyterians and 
 157,847 put themselves down as Protestants with- 
 out giving the sect to which they adhere. 
 
 The foreign population of India is very small. The 
 British-born number only 96,653 ; 104,583 were born on 
 the continent of Europe, and only 641,854 out of nearly 
 300,000,000 were born outside the boundaries of India. 
 
 India consists of four separate and well-defined regions : 
 the jungles of the coast and the vast tract of country 
 know'n as the Deccan, which make up the southern half of 
 the Empire ; the great plain which stretches southward 
 from the Himalayas and constitutes what was formerly 
 known as Hindustan ; and a three-sided tableland which 
 lies between, in the center of the empire, and is drained 
 
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA 65 
 
 by a thousand rivers, which carry the water off as fast as 
 it falls and leave but little to refresh the earth. This is 
 the scene of periodical famine, but the government is 
 pushing the irrigation system so rapidly that before many 
 years the danger from that source will be much dimin- 
 ished. 
 
 The whole of southern India, according to the geolo- 
 gists, was once covered by a great forest, and indeed 
 there are still 66,305,506 acres in trees which are care- 
 fully protected. The black soil of that region is proverbial 
 for its fertility and produces cotton, sugar cane, rice and 
 other tropical and semi-tropical plants with an abundance 
 surpassed by no other region. The fruit-bearing palms 
 require a chapter to themselves in the botanies, and are a 
 source of surprising wealth. According to the latest 
 census the enormous area of 546,224,964 acres is under 
 cultivation, which is an average of nearly two acres per 
 capita of population, and probably two-thirds of it is ac- 
 tually cropped. About one-fourth of this area is under 
 irrigation and more than 22,000,000 acres produce two 
 crops a year. 
 
 Most of the population is scattered in villages, and the 
 number of people who are not supported by farms is 
 much smaller than would be supposed from the figures 
 of the census. A large proportion of the inhabitants re- 
 turned as engaged in trade and other employments really 
 belong to the agricultural community, because they are 
 the agents of middlemen through whose hands the pro- 
 duce of the farms passes. These people live in villages 
 among the farming community. In all the Empire there 
 are only eight towns with more than 200,000 inhabitants ; 
 only three with more than 500,000, and only one with a 
 million, which is Calcutta. The other seven in order of 
 
66 MODERN INDIA 
 
 size are Bombay, Madras, Hyderabad, Lncknow, Ran- 
 goon, Benares and Delhi. There are only twenty-nine 
 towns with more than 1 00,000 inhabitants; forty-nine with 
 more than 50,000; 471 with more than 10,000; 877 with 
 more than 5,000, and 2,134 organized municipalities with 
 a population of 1,000 or more. These municipalities rep- 
 resent an aggregate population of 29,244,221 out of a to- 
 tal of 294,361,056, leaving 265,134,722 inhabitants scat- 
 tered upon farms and in 729,752 villages. The city popu- 
 lation, however, is growing more rapidly than that of the 
 country, because of the efforts of the government to di- 
 vert labor from the farms to the factories. In Germany, 
 France, England and other countries of Europe and in 
 the United States the reverse policy is pursued. 
 Their rural population is drifting too rapidly to the 
 cities, and the cities are growing faster than is con- 
 sidered healthful. In India, during the ten years from 
 1891 to 1901 the city population has increased only 2,- 
 452,083, while the rural population has increased only 
 4,567,032. 
 
 The following table shows the number of people sup- 
 ported by each of the principal occupations named : 
 
 Agriculture 191,691,731 
 
 Earth work and general labor (not agricul- 
 ture) 17,953,261 
 
 Producing food, drink and stimulants 16,758,726 
 
 Producing textile fabrics 11,214,158 
 
 Personal, household and sanitary 10,717,500 
 
 Rent payers (tenants) 106,873,575 
 
 Rent receivers (landlords) 45,810,673 
 
 Field laborers 29,325,985 
 
 General laborers 16,941,026 
 
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA 6y 
 
 Cotton weavers 5,460,515 
 
 Farm servants 4,196,697 
 
 Beggars (non-religious) 4,222,241 
 
 Priests and others engaged in religion 2,728,812 
 
 Workers and dealers in wood, bamboo, etc.. 2,499,531 
 
 Barbers and shampooers 2,331,598 
 
 Grain and pulse dealers 2,264,481 
 
 Herdsmen (cattle, sheep and goats) 2,215,791 
 
 Indoor servants 2,078,018 
 
 Washermen 2,01 1,624 
 
 Workers and dealers in earthen and stone 
 
 ware 2,125,225 
 
 Shoe, boot and sandal makers 1,957,291 
 
 Shopkeepers 1,839,958 
 
 Workers and dealers in gold and silver 1,768,597 
 
 Cart and pack animal owners 1,605,529 
 
 Iron and steel workers 1,475,883 
 
 Watchmen and other village servants 1,605,118 
 
 Grocery dealers ♦ 1,587,225 
 
 Sweepers and scavengers 1,518,482 
 
 Fishermen and fish curers 1,280,358 
 
 Fish dealers 1,269,435 
 
 Workers in cane and matting 1,290,961 
 
 Bankers, money lenders, etc 1,200,998 
 
 Tailors, milliners and dressmakers 1,142,153 
 
 Officers of the civil service 1,043,872 
 
 Water carriers 1,089,574 
 
 Oil pressers 1,055,933 
 
 Dairy men, milk and butter dealers 1,013,000 
 
 The enormous number of 1,563,000, which is equal to 
 the population of half our states, are engaged in what 
 
 the census terms "disreputable" occupations. There are 
 
68 MODERN INDIA 
 
 about eighty other classes, but none of them embraces 
 more than a milHon members. 
 
 Among the curiosities of the census we find that 603,741 
 people are engaged in making and selling sweetmeats, 
 and 550,241 in selling cardamon seeds and betel leaves, 
 and 548,829 in manufacturing and selling bangles, neck- 
 laces, beads and sacred threads. There are 497,509 
 teachers and professors, 562,055 actors, singers and danc- 
 ers, 520,044 doctors and 279,646 lawyers. 
 
 The chewing of betel leaves is one of the peculiar cus- 
 toms of the country, even more common than tobacco 
 chewing ever was with us. At almost every street corner, 
 in the porticos of the temples, at the railway stations and 
 in the parks, you will see women and men, squatting on 
 the ground behind little trays covered with green leaves, 
 powdered nuts and a white paste, made of the ashes of 
 cocoanut fiber, the skins of potatoes and a little lime. 
 They take a leaf, smear it with the lime paste, which is 
 intended to increase the saliva, and then wrap it around 
 the powder of the betel nut. Natives stop at these stands, 
 drop a copper, pick up one of these folded leaves, put it 
 in their mouths, and go ofif chewing, and spitting out 
 saliva as red as blood. Strangers are frequently at- 
 tracted by dark red stains upon pavements and floors 
 which look as if somebody had suffered from a hemor- 
 rhage or had opened an artery, but they are only traces 
 of the chewers of the betel nut. The habit is no more 
 harmful than chewing tobacco. The influence of the 
 juice is slightly stimulating to the nerves, but not inju- 
 rious, although it is filthy and unclean. 
 
 It is a popular impression that the poor of India live 
 almost exclusively upon rice, which is very cheap and 
 nourishing, hence it is possible for a family to subsist 
 
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA 69 
 
 upon a few cents a day. This is one of the many delu- 
 sions that are destroyed when you visit the country. Rice 
 in India is a luxury that can be afiforded only by the peo- 
 ple of good incomes, and throughout four-fifths of the 
 country is sold at prices beyond the reach of common 
 working people. Sixty per cent, of the population live 
 upon wheat, barley, fruit, various kinds of pulses and 
 maize. Rice can be grown only in hot and damp cli- 
 mates, where there are ample means of irrigation, and 
 only where the conditions of soil, climate and water sup- 
 ply allow its abundant production does it enter into the 
 diet of the working classes. Three-fourths of the peo- 
 ple are vegetarians, and live upon what they produce 
 themselves. 
 
 The density of the population is very great, notwith- 
 standing the enormous area of the empire, being an 
 average of 167 to the square mile, including mountains, 
 deserts and jungles, as against 21.4 to the square mile in 
 the United States. Bengal, the province of which Cal- 
 cutta is the capital, on the eastern coast of India, is the 
 most densely populated, having 588 people to the square 
 mile. Behar in the south has 548, Oudh in the north 
 531 ; Agra, also in the north, 419, and Bombay 202. Some 
 parts of India have a larger population to the acre than 
 any other part of the world. The peasants, or coolies, as 
 they are called, are born and live and die like animals. 
 Indeed animals seldom are so closely herded together, or 
 live such wretched lives. In 1900, 54,000,000 people were 
 more or less afifected by the famine, and 5,607,000 were 
 fed by the government for several months, simply because 
 there was no other way for them to obtain food. There 
 was no labor they could perform for wages, and those 
 who were fortunate enough to secure employment could 
 
yo MODERN INDIA 
 
 not earn enough to buy bread to satisfy the hunger of 
 their families. It is estimated that 30,000,000 human 
 beings starved to death in India during the nineteenth 
 century, and in one year alone, the year in which that 
 good woman. Queen Victoria, assumed the title of em- 
 press, more than 5,000,000 of her subjects died from hun- 
 ger. Yet the population without immigration is continually 
 increasing from natural causes. The net increase during 
 the ten years from 1891 to 1901 was 7,046,385. The 
 struggle for life is becoming greater every year; wages 
 are going down instead of up, notwithstanding the rapid 
 increase of manufacturing industries, the extension of 
 the railway system and other sources of wealth and em- 
 ployment that are being rapidly developed. 
 
 More than 200,000,000 persons in India are living upon 
 less than 5 cents a day of our money ; more than 100,000,- 
 000 are living upon less than 3 cents ; more than 50,000,- 
 000 upon less than i cent and at least two-thirds of the 
 entire population do not have food enough during any 
 year of their lives to supply the nourishment demanded 
 by the human system. As I have already shown, there 
 are only two acres of land under cultivation for each 
 inhabitant of India. This includes gardens, parks and 
 pastures, and it is not evenly distributed. In many parts 
 of the country, millions are compelled to live upon an 
 average of one-fourth of an acre of land and millions 
 more upon half an acre each, whereas an average of five 
 acres of agricultural land per capita of population is be- 
 lieved to be necessary to the prosperity of a nation. 
 
 Few countries have such an enormous birth rate and 
 death rate. Nowhere else are babies born in such enor- 
 mous numbers, and nowhere does death reap such awful 
 harvests. Sometimes a single famine or plague suddenly 
 
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA 71 
 
 sweeps millions into eternity, and their absence is scarcely 
 noticed. Before the present sanitary regulations and in- 
 spections were introduced the death rate was nearly 
 double what it is now ; indeed, some experts estimate that 
 it must have been several times as great, but no records 
 were kept in some of the provinces, and in most of them, 
 they were incomplete and inaccurate. India is now in a 
 healthier condition than ever before, and yet the death 
 rate varies from 31.10 per 1,000 in the cold provinces of 
 Agra and Oudh to 82.7 per 1,000 in the tropical regions 
 of Behar. In Bombay last year the rate was 70.07 per 
 1,000 ; in the central provinces 56.75 ; in the Punjab, which 
 has a wide area in northwestern India, it was 47.7 and in 
 Bengal 36.63. 
 
 The birth rate is almost as large, the following table 
 being reported from the principal provinces named : 
 
 Births per Births per 
 
 1,000 pop. 1,000 2op. 
 
 Behar 50.5 Burmah 37.4 
 
 Punjab 48.4 Bombay 36.3 
 
 Agra 48.9 Assam 35.4 
 
 Central provinces 47.3 Madras 31.3 
 
 Bengal 42.9 
 
 Even with the continual peril from plague and famine, 
 the government does not encourage emigration, as you 
 think would be considered a wise policy, but retards it by 
 all sorts of regulations and restrictions, and it is difficult 
 to drive the Hindus out of the wretched hovels in which 
 they live and thrive and breed like rats or rabbits. The 
 more wretched and comfortless a home, the more attached 
 the natives are to it. The less they have to leave the 
 more reluctant they are to leave it, but the same rule 
 applies to every race and every nation in the south of 
 
J2 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Europe and the Turkish Empire, in Syria, Egypt, the 
 East India Islands, and wherever the population is dense 
 and wages are low. It is the semi-prosperous middle 
 class who emigrate in the hope of bettering their con- 
 dition. 
 
 There is less emigration from India than from any 
 other country. During the last twenty years the total 
 number of persons emigrating from the Indian Empire 
 was only 316,349, less than come to the United States 
 annually from Italy, and the statistics show that 138,660 
 of these persons returned to their former homes during 
 that period, leaving the net emigration since 1882 only 
 177,689 out of 300,000,000 of population. And most of 
 these settled in other British colonies. We have a few 
 Hindu merchants and Parsees in the United States, but 
 no coolies whatever. The coolies are working classes 
 that have gone to British Guiana, Trinidad, Jamaica and 
 other West Indies, Natal, East Africa, Fiji and other 
 British possessions in the Pacific. There has been 
 a considerable flow of workmen back and forth be- 
 tween India and Burma and Ceylon, for in those provinces 
 labor is scarce, wages are high and large numbers of 
 Hindus are employed in the rice paddies and tea plan- 
 tations. 
 
 The government prevents irregular emigration. It 
 has a "protectorate of emigrants" who is intrusted with 
 the enforcement of the laws. Natives of India are not 
 permitted to leave the country unless they are certain 
 of obtaining employment at the place where they desire 
 to go, and even then each intending emigrant must file 
 a copy of his contract with the commissioner in order 
 that he may be looked after in- his new home, for the 
 Indian government always sends an agent to protect the 
 
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA -ji 
 
 interests of its coolies to every country where they have 
 gone in any considerable numbers. Every intending 
 emigrant must submit to a medical examination also, for 
 the navigation laws prohibit vessels from taking aboard 
 any native who does not show a certificate from an official 
 that he is in full possession of his health and faculties and 
 physically fit to earn his living in a strange country. 
 Vessels carrying emigrants are subject to inspection, and 
 are obliged to take out licenses, which require them to 
 observe certain rules regarding space occupied, ventila- 
 tion, sanitation and the supply of food and water. Most 
 of the emigrants leaving India go out under contract and 
 the terms must be approved by the agent of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The fact that the government and the benevolent peo- 
 ple of Europe and America have twice within the last ten 
 years been compelled to intervene to save the people of 
 India from perishing of starvation has created an im- 
 pression that they are always in the lowest depths of 
 distress and continually suffering from any privations. 
 This is not unnatural, and might under ordinary circum- 
 stances be accepted as conclusive proof of the growing 
 poverty of the country and the inability of the people to 
 preserve their own lives. Such a conclusion, however, is 
 very far from the fact, and every visitor to India from 
 foreign lands has a surprise awaiting him concerning its 
 condition and progress. When three-fifths of a popula- 
 tion of 300,000,000 have all their eggs in one basket and 
 depend entirely upon little spots of soil for sustenance, 
 and when their crops are entirely dependent upon the 
 rains, and when for a succession of years the rains are 
 not sufficient, there must be failures of harvest and a vast 
 
74 MODERN INDIA 
 
 amount of suffering is inevitable. But the recuperative 
 power of the empire is astonishing. 
 
 Although a famine may extend over its total length and 
 breadth one season, and require all the resources of the 
 government to prevent the entire population from perish- 
 ing, a normal rainfall will restore almost immediate pros- 
 perity, because the soil is so rich, the sun is so hot, and 
 vegetation is so rapid that sometimes three and even four 
 crops are produced from the same soil in a single year. 
 All the people want in time of famine is sufficient seed to 
 replant their farms and food enough to last them until 
 a crop is ripe. The fact that a famine exists in one part 
 of the country, it must also be considered, is no evidence 
 that the remainder of the empire is not abounding in pros- 
 perity, and every table of statistics dealing w^ith the ma- 
 terial conditions of the country shows that famine and 
 plague have in no manner impeded their progress. On 
 the other hand they demonstrate the existence of an in- 
 creased power of endurance and rapid recuperation, which, 
 compared with the past, affords ground for hope and con- 
 fidence of an even more rapid advance in the future. 
 
 Comparing the material condition of India in 1904 with 
 what it was ten years previous, we find that the area of 
 soil under cultivation has increased 229,000,000 acres. 
 What we call internal revenue has increased 17 per cent 
 during the last ten years ; sea borne foreign commerce 
 has risen in value from £130,500,000 to £163,750,000; the 
 coasting trade from £48,500,000 to £63,000,000, and the 
 foreign trade by land from £5,500,000 to £9,000,000. 
 Similar signs of progress and prosperity are to be found 
 in the development of organized manufactures, in the in- 
 creased investment of capital in commerce and industry, 
 in dividends paid by various enterprises, in the extended 
 
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA 75 
 
 use of the railways, the postoffice and the telegraph. The 
 number of operatives in cotton mills has increased dur- 
 ing the last ten years from 118,000 to 174,000, in jute 
 mills from 65,000 to 1 14,000, in coal and other mines from 
 35,000 to 95,000, and in miscellaneous industries from 
 184,000 to 500,000. The railway employes have increased 
 in number from 284,000 to 357,000 in ten years. 
 
 A corresponding development and improvement is 
 found in all lines of investment. During the ten years 
 from 1894 to 1904 the number of joint stock companies 
 having more than $100,000 capital has increased from 
 950 to 1,366, and their paid up capital from £17,750,000 
 to £24,500,000. The paid in capital of banks has ad- 
 vanced from £9,000,000 to £14,750,000; deposits have in- 
 creased from £7,500,000 to £23,650,000, and the deposits 
 In postal savings banks from £4,800,000 to £7,200,000, 
 which is an encouraging indication of the growth of hab- 
 its of thrift. The passenger traffic on the railways has 
 increased from 123,000,000 to 195,000,000, and the freight 
 from 20,000,000 to 34,000,000 tons. The number of let- 
 ters and parcels passing through the postoffice has in- 
 creased during the ten years from 340,000,000 to 560,- 
 000,000 ; the postal money orders from £9,000,000 to 
 £19,000,000, and the telegraph messages from 3,000,000 
 to 5,000,000 in number. 
 
 The income tax is an excellent barometer of prosperity. 
 It exempts ordinary wage earners entirely — persons with 
 incomes of less than 500 rupees, a rupee being worth 
 about 33 cents of our money. The whole number of per- 
 sons paying the income tax has increased from 354,594 
 to 495,605, which is about 40 per cent in ten years, and 
 the average tax paid has increased from 37.09 rupees to 
 48.68 rupees. The proceeds of the tax have increased 
 
76 MODERN INDIA 
 
 steadily from year to year, with the exception of the 
 famine years. 
 
 There are four classifications of taxpayers, and the 
 proportion paid by each during the last year, 1902, was 
 as follows : 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Salaries and pensions 29.07 
 
 Dividends from companies and business 7.22 
 
 Interest on securities 4.63 
 
 Miscellaneous sources of income 59-o8 
 
 The last item is very significant. It shows that nearly 
 60 per cent of the income taxpayers of India are sup- 
 ported by miscellaneous investments other than securities 
 and joint stock companies. The item includes the names 
 of merchants, individual manufacturers, farmers, me- 
 chanics, professional men and tradesmen of every class. 
 
 The returns of the postal savings banks show the fol- 
 lowing classes of depositors : 
 
 Number. 
 
 Wage earners v'552,349 
 
 Professional men with fixed incomes 233,108 
 
 Professional men with variable incomes 58,130 
 
 Domestics, or house servants 151,204 
 
 Tradesmen 32,065 
 
 Farmers 12,387 
 
 Mechanics 27,450 
 
 The interest allowed by the savings bank government 
 of India is 3^ per cent. 
 
 Considering the awful misfortunes and distress which 
 the country has endured during the last ten years, these 
 facts are not only satisfactory but remarkable, and if it 
 can progress so rapidly during times of plague and fam- 
 
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA 77 
 
 iiie, what could be expected from it during a cycle of sea- 
 sons of full crops. 
 
 During the ten years which ended with 1894 the sea- 
 sons were all favorable, generally speaking, although 
 local failures of harvests occurred here and there in dis- 
 tricts of several provinces, but they were not sufficient in 
 area, duration or intensity to affect the material condi- 
 tions of the people. The ten succeeding years, how- 
 ever, ending with 1904 witnessed a succession of calami- 
 ties that were unprecedented either in India or anywhere 
 else on earth, with the exception of a famine that oc- 
 curred in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Those 
 ten years not only saw two of the worst famines, but re- 
 peated visitations of widespread and fatal epidemics. It 
 is estimated that during the ten years ending December, 
 1903, a million and a half of deaths were caused by the 
 bubonic plague alone, and that the mortality from that 
 pestilence was small in comparison with that caused by 
 cholera, fever and famine. The effects of those epidemics 
 had been to hamper trade, to alarm and demoralize the 
 people, to obstruct foreign commerce, prevent investments 
 and the development of material resources. Yet during 
 the years 1902 and 1903 throughout all India there was 
 abundant prosperity. This restoration of prosperity is 
 most noticeable in several of the districts that suffered 
 most severely from famine. To a large measure the agri- 
 cultural population have been restored to their normal 
 condition. 
 
 It is difficult in a great country like India where wages 
 are so small and the cost of living is so insignificant 
 compared with our own country, to judge accurately of 
 the condition of the laboring classes. The empire is so 
 vast and so diverse in all its features that a statement 
 
78 MODERN INDIA 
 
 which may accurately apply to one province will misrep- 
 resent another. But, taking one consideration with 
 another, as the song says, and drawing an average, it is 
 plainly evident that the peasant population of India is 
 slowly improving in condition. The scales of wages hive 
 undoubtedly risen ; there has been an improvement in the 
 housing and the feeding of the masses ; their sanitary 
 condition has been radically changed, although they have 
 fought against it, and the slow but gradual development 
 of the material resources of the country promises to make 
 the improvement permanent. 
 
 The chief source of revenue in India from ancient times 
 has been a share in the crops of the farmers. The pres- 
 ent system has been handed down through the centuries 
 with very little modification, and as three-fifths of the 
 people are entirely and directly dependent upon the culti- 
 vation of the land, the whole fabric of society has been 
 based upon that source of wealth. The census gives 
 191,691,731 people as agriculturists, of whom 131,000,- 
 000 till their own or rented land, 18,750,000 receive in- 
 comes as landlord owners and the remainder are agri- 
 cultural laborers. The landlord caste are the descend- 
 ants of hereditary chiefs, of former revenue farmers and 
 persons of importance to whom land grants were made 
 in ancient times. Large tracts of land in northern India 
 are owned by municipalities and village communities, 
 whose officials receive the rents and pay the taxes. Other 
 large tracts have been inherited from the invaders and 
 conquerors of the country. It is customary in India for 
 the landlord to receive his rent in a part of the crop, and 
 the government in turn receives a share of this rent in 
 lieu of taxes. This is an ancient system which the Brit- 
 ish government has never interfered with, and any at- 
 
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA 79 
 
 tempt to modify or chaftge it would undoubtedly be 
 resisted. At the same time the rents are largely regu- 
 lated by the taxes. These customs, which have come 
 down from the Mogul empire, have been defined and 
 strengthened by time and experience. Nearly every prov- 
 ince has its own and different laws and customs on the 
 subject, but the variation is due not to legislation, but 
 to public sentiment. The tenant as well as the landlord 
 insists that the assessments of taxes shall be made before 
 the rent rate is determined, and this occurs in almost 
 every province, although variations in rent and changes 
 of proprietorship and tenantry very seldom occur. 
 Wherever there has been a change during the present 
 generation it has been in favor of the tenants. The rates 
 of rent and taxation naturally vary according to the pro- 
 ductive power of the land, the advantages of climate and 
 rainfall, the facilities for reaching market and other con- 
 ditions. But the average tax represents about two-thirds 
 of a rupee per acre, or 21 cents in American money. 
 
 We have been accustomed to consider India a great 
 wheat producing country, and you often hear of appre- 
 hension on the part of American political economists lest 
 its cheap labor and enormous area should give our wheat 
 growers serious competition. But there is not the slight- 
 est ground for apprehension. While the area planted to 
 wheat in India might be doubled, and farm labor earns 
 only a few cents a day, the methods of cultivation are so 
 primitive and the results of that cheap labor are com- 
 paratively so small, that they can never count seriously 
 against our wheat farms which are tilled and harvested 
 with machinery and intelligence. No article in the Indian 
 export trade has been so irregular or has experienced 
 greater vicissitudes than wheat. The highest figure ever 
 
8o MODERN INDIA 
 
 reached in the value of exports was during the years 
 1891-92, when there was an exceptional crop, and the 
 exports reached $47,500,000. The average for the pre- 
 ceding ten years was $25,970,000, while the average for 
 the succeeding ten years, ending 1901-02, was only 
 $12,740,000. This extraordinary decrease was due to the 
 failure of the crop year after year and the influence of the 
 famines of 1897 and 1900. The bulk of the wheat pro- 
 duced in India is consumed within the districts where it 
 is raised, and the average size of the wheat farms is less 
 than five acres. More than three-fourths of the India 
 wheat crop is grown on little patches of ground only a 
 few feet square, and sold in the local markets. The great 
 bulk of the wheat exported comes from the large farms or 
 is turned in to the owners of land rented to tenants for 
 shares of the crops produced. 
 
 The coal industry is becoming important. There are 
 329 mines in operation, which yielded 7,424,480 tons 
 during the calendar year of 1902, an increase of nearly 
 1,000,000 tons in the five years ending 1903. It is a fair 
 grade of bituminous coal and does well for steaming pur- 
 poses. Twenty-eight per cent of the total output was 
 consumed by the local railway locomotives in 1902, and 
 431,552 tons was exported to Ceylon and other neighbor- 
 ing countries. The first mine was opened in India as long 
 ago as 1820, but it was the only one worked for twenty 
 years, and the development of the industry has been very 
 slow, simply keeping pace with the increase of railways, 
 mills, factories and other consumers. But the production 
 is entirely sufficient to meet the local demand, and only 
 23,417 tons was imported in 1902, all of which came as 
 ballast. The industry gives employment to about 98,000 
 persons. Most of the stock in the mining companies is 
 
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA 8i 
 
 owned by private citizens of India. The prices in Cal- 
 cutta and Bombay vary from $2.30 to $2.85 a ton. 
 
 India is rich in mineral deposits, but few of them have 
 been developed, chiefly on account of the lack of capital 
 and enterprise. After coal, petroleum is the most im- 
 portant item, and in 1902 nearly 57,000,000 gallons was 
 refined and sold in the India market, but this was not 
 sufficient to meet half the demand, and about 81,000,000 
 gallons was imported from the United States and Russia. 
 
 Gold mining is carried on in a primitive way in several 
 of the provinces, chiefly by the washing of river sand. 
 Valuable gold deposits are known to exist, but no one has 
 had the enterprise or the capital to undertake their devel- 
 opment, simply because costly machinery is required and 
 would call for a heavy investment. Most of the gold 
 washing is done by natives with rude, home-made imple- 
 ments, and the total production reported for $1902 was 
 517,639 ounces, valued at $20 an ounce. This, however, 
 does not tell more than half the story. It represents only 
 the amount of gold shipped out of the country, while at 
 least as much again, if not more, was consumed by local 
 artisans in the manufacture of the jewelry which is so 
 popular among the natives. When a Hindu man or 
 woman gets a little money ahead he or she invariably 
 buys silver or gold ornaments with it, instead of placing 
 it in a savings bank or making other investm.ents. Nearly 
 all women and children that you see are loaded with silver 
 ornaments, their legs and feet as well as their hands and 
 arms, and necklaces of silver weighing a pound or more 
 are common. Girdles of beautifully wrought silver are 
 sometimes worn next to the bare skin by ordinary coolies 
 working on the roads or on the docks of the rivers, and 
 in every town you visit you will find hundreds of shops 
 
82 MODERN INDIA 
 
 devoted to the sale of silver and gold adornments of rude 
 workmanship but put metal. The upper classes invest 
 their savings in gold and precious stones for similar rea- 
 sons. There is scarcely a family of the middle class 
 without a jewel case containing many articles of great 
 value, while both the men and women of the rich and 
 noble castes own and wear on ceremonial occasions amaz- 
 ing collections of precious stones and gold ornaments 
 which have been handed down by their ancestors who in- 
 vested their surplus wealth in them at a time when no 
 safe securities were to be had and savings banks had not 
 been introduced into India. A large proportion of the 
 native gold is consumed by local artisans in the manu- 
 facture of these ornaments, and is not counted in the 
 official returns. An equal amount, perhaps, is worked up 
 into gold foil and used for gilding temples, palaces and 
 the houses of the rich. Like all orientals, the Indians are 
 very fond of gilding, and immense quantities of pure gold 
 leaf are manufactured in little shops that may be seen in 
 every bazaar you visit. 
 
 India now ranks second among the manganese ore pro- 
 ducing countries of the world, and has an inexhaustible 
 supply of the highest grade. The quality of the ores from 
 the central provinces permits their export in the face of 
 a railway haul of 500 miles and sea transportation to 
 England, Belgium, Germany and the United States, but, 
 speaking generally, the mineral development of India has 
 not yet begun. 
 
V 
 
 Two HINDU WEDDINGS 
 
 There was a notable wedding at Baroda, the capital of 
 one of the Native States of the same name, while we 
 were in India, and the Gaikwar, as the ruling prince is 
 called, expressed a desire for us to be present. He has a 
 becoming respect for and appreciation of the influence 
 and usefulness of the press, and it was a pleasure to find 
 so sensible a man among the native rulers. But, owing 
 to circumstances over which we had no control, we had 
 to deny ourselves the gratification of witnessing an event 
 which few foreigners have ever been allowed to see. It 
 is a pity winter is so short in the East, for there are so 
 many countries one cannot comfortably visit any other 
 time of year. 
 
 Baroda is a non-tributary, independent native state of 
 the first rank, lying directly north of the province of 
 Bombay, and its ruler is called a "gaikwar," which signi- 
 fies "cowherd," and the present possessor of that title is 
 one of the biggest men in the empire, one of the richest 
 and one of the greatest swells. He is entitled to a salute 
 of twenty-one guns, an honor conferred upon only two 
 other native princes, the Maharajah of Mysore and the 
 Nizam of Hyderabad. He is one of the ablest and one 
 of the most progressive of the native princes. His family 
 trace their descent back to the gods of mythology, but he 
 is entirely human himself, and a handsome man of mid- 
 
 83 
 
84 MODERN INDIA 
 
 die age. When we saw him for the first time he had half 
 a dozen garlands of flowers hanging around his neck, and 
 three or four big bouquets in his hand, which, according 
 to tlie custom of the country, had been presented to him 
 by affectionate friends. It was he who presented to- the 
 City of Bombay the beautiful statue of Queen Victoria 
 which ornaments the principal public square. It is one 
 of the finest monuments to be seen anywhere, and ex- 
 pressed his admiration of his empress, who had shown 
 particular interest in his career. The present gaikwar 
 was placed upon the throne in 1874 by Lord Northbrook, 
 when he was Viceroy of India, to succeed Malhar Rao, 
 one of those fantastic persons we read about in fairy 
 stories but seldom find in real life. For extravagant 
 phantasies and barbaric splendors he beat the world. He 
 surpassed even those old spendthrifts of the Roman Em- 
 pire, Nero, Caligula and Tiberius. He spent a million 
 of rupees to celebrate the marriage ceremonies of a fa- 
 vorite pigeon of his aviary, which was mated with one 
 belonging to his prime minister. But the most remark- 
 able of his extravagant freaks was a rug and two pillow 
 covers of pearls, probably the greatest marvel of all fab- 
 rics that were ever woven since the world was made. 
 
 The carpet, ten feet six inches by six feet in size, is 
 woven entirely of strings of perfect pearls. A border 
 eleven inches wide and a center ornament are worked out 
 in diamonds. The pillow covers are three feet by two 
 feet six inches in size. For three years the jewel mer- 
 chants of India, and they are many, were searching for 
 the material for this extraordinary affair. It cost several 
 millions of dollars and was intended as a present for a 
 Mohammedan lady of doubtful reputation, who had fas- 
 cinated His Highness. The British Resident at his 
 
TWO HINDU WEDDINGS 85 
 
 capital intervened and prohibited the gift on the ground 
 that the State of Baroda could not afford to indulge its 
 ruler in such generosity, and that the scandal would 
 reflect upon the administration of the Indian Empire. 
 The carpet still belongs to the State and may be seen by 
 visitors upon a permit from one of the higher authorities. 
 It is kept at Baroda in a safe place with the rest of the 
 state jewels, which are the richest in India and probably 
 the most costly belonging to any government in the world. 
 
 The regalia of the gaikwar intended for state occa- 
 sions, which was worn by him at the wedding, is valued 
 at $i5,ooo,ocK). He appeared in it at the Delhi durbar in 
 1903. It consists of a collar and shoulder pieces made 
 of 500 diamonds, some of them as large as walnuts. The 
 smallest would be considered a treasure by any lady in 
 the land. The border of this collar is made of three 
 bands of emeralds, of graduated sizes, the outer row con- 
 sisting of jewels nearly an inch square. From the collar, 
 as a pendant, hangs one of the largest and most famous 
 diamonds in the world, known as the "Star of the Dec- 
 can." Its history may be found in any work on jewels. 
 There is an aigrette to match the collar, which His High- 
 ness wears in his turban. 
 
 This is only one of several sets to be found in the col- 
 lection, which altogether would make as brave a show as 
 you can find at Tiffany's. There are strings of pearls as 
 large as marbles, and a rope of pearls nearly four feet 
 long braided of four strands. Every pearl is said to be 
 perfect and the size of a pea. The rope is about an inch 
 in diameter. Besides these are necklaces, bracelets, 
 brooches, rings and every conceivable ornament set with 
 jewels of every variety, which have been handed down 
 from generation to generation in this princely family for 
 
86 MODERN INDIA 
 
 several hundred years. One of the most interesting of 
 the necklaces is made of uncut rubies said to have been 
 found in India. It has been worn for more than a thou- 
 sand years. These jewels are kept in a treasure-room in 
 the heart of the Nazar Bgah Palace, guarded night and 
 day by a battalion of soldiers. At night when the palace 
 is closed half a dozen huge cheetahs, savage beasts of the 
 leopard family, are released in the corridors, and, as you 
 may imagine, they are efficient watchmen. They would 
 make a burglar very unhappy. During the daytime they 
 are allowed to wander about the palace grounds, but are 
 carefully muzzled. 
 
 Malhar Rao built a superb palace at a cost of $1,500,000 
 which is considered the most perfect and beautiful exam- 
 ple of the Hindu-Saracenic order of architecture in exist- 
 ence, and its interior finish and decoration are wonderful 
 for their artistic beauty, detail and variety. In front of 
 the main entrance are two guns of solid gold, weighing 
 two hundred and eighty pounds each, and the carriages, 
 ammunition wagons and other accoutrements are made of 
 solid silver. The present Maharajah is said to have de- 
 cided to melt them down and have them coined into good 
 money, with which he desires to endow a technical school. 
 
 Behind the palace is a great walled arena in which pre- 
 vious rulers of Baroda have had fights between elephants, 
 tigers, lions and other wild beasts for the amusement of 
 their court and the population generally. And they re- 
 mind you of those we read about in the Colosseum in the 
 time of Nero and other Roman emperors. Baroda has 
 one of the finest zoological gardens in the world, but most 
 of the animals are native to India. It is surrounded by a 
 botanical garden, in which the late gaikwar, who was pas- 
 
TWO HINDU WEDDINGS 87 
 
 sionately fond of plants and flowers, took a great deal of 
 interest and spent a great deal of money. 
 
 He built a temple at Dakor, a few miles from Baroda, 
 which cost an enormous sum of money, in honor of an 
 ancient image of the Hindu god, Krishna. It has been 
 the resort of pilgrims for hundreds of years, and is con- 
 sidered one of the most sacred idols of India. In addi- 
 tion to the temple he constructed hospices for the shelter 
 and entertainment of pilgrims, who come nowadays in 
 larger numbers than ever, sometimes as many as a hun- 
 dred thousand in a year, and are all fed and cared for, 
 furnished comfortable clothing and medical attendance, 
 bathed, healed and comforted at the expense of His High- 
 ness, whose generosity and hospitality are not limited to 
 his own subjects. The throne of the idol Krishna in 
 that temple is a masterpiece of wood carving and bears 
 $60,000 worth of gold ornaments. Artists say that this 
 temple, although entirely modern, surpasses in the beauty 
 of its detail, both in design and workmanship, any of the 
 old temples in India which people come thousands of 
 miles to see. 
 
 Fate at last overtook the strange man who did all these 
 things and he came to grief. Indignant at Colonel 
 Phayre, the British Resident, for interfering with his 
 wishes in regard to the pearl carpet and some other little 
 fancies, he attempted to poison him in an imperial man- 
 ner. He caused a lot of diamonds to be ground up into 
 powder and dropped into a cup of pomolo juice, which 
 he tried to induce his prudent adviser to drink. Ordi- 
 nary drug store poison was beneath him. When Malhar 
 Rao committed a crime he did it, as he did everything else, 
 with royal splendor. He had tried the same trick suc- 
 cessfully upon his brother and predecessor, Gaikwar 
 
88 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Khandc Rao, the man who built a beautiful sailors' home 
 at Bombay in 1870 to commemorate the visit of the Duke 
 of Edinburgh to India. Colonel Phayre suspected some- 
 thing wrong, and declined to drink the toast His Highness 
 offered. The plot was soon afterward discovered and 
 Viceroy Lord Northbrook, who had tolerated his tyranny 
 and fantastic performances as long as possible, made an 
 investigation and ordered him before a court over which 
 the chief justice of Bengal presided. The evidence dis- 
 closed a most scandalous condition of affairs throughout 
 the entire province. Public offices were sold to the high- 
 est bidder; demands for blackmail were enforced by tor- 
 ture ; the wives and daughters of his subjects were seized 
 at his will and carried to his palace whenever their beauty 
 attracted his attention. The condition of the people was 
 desperate. In one district there was open rebellion ; dis- 
 content prevailed everywhere and the methods of admin- 
 istration were infamous. It was shown that a previous 
 prime minister had been poisoned by direct orders of his 
 chief and that with his own hands the gaikwar had beaten 
 one of his own servants to death. Two Hindu judges of 
 the court voted for acquittal, but the remainder found him 
 guilty. As the judgment w^as not unanimous, Mahal Rao 
 escaped the death penalty which he deserved, and w^ould 
 have suffered but for the sympathy of his judicial co- 
 religionists. He was deposed and sent to prison, and 
 when an investigation of his finances was made, it was 
 found that during the last year of his reign he had wasted 
 $3,500,000 in gifts to his favorites, in gratifying his 
 whims and fancies, and for personal pleasures. All of 
 which was wrung from the people by taxation. 
 
 After his conviction the widow of his brother and 
 predecessor, Kliande Rao, whom he had poisoned, was 
 
TWO HINDU WEDDINGS 89 
 
 allowed to exercise the right of adoption, and her choice 
 fell upon the present gaikwar, then a lad of eleven, be- 
 longing to a collateral branch of the family. He was 
 provided with English tutors and afterward sent to Eng- 
 land to complete his education. He proved a brilliant 
 scholar, an industrious, earnest, practical man, and, as I 
 have said. Queen Victoria took a great personal interest 
 in him. When he came to the throne in 1874, he im- 
 mediately applied himself with energy and intelligence to 
 the administration of the government and surrounded 
 himself with the best English advisers he could get. 
 Since his accession the condition of Baroda has entirely 
 changed and is in striking contrast with that which ex- 
 isted under his predecessors. Many taxes have been 
 abolished and more have been reduced. Public works 
 have been constructed everywhere ; schools, colleges, hos- 
 pitals, asylums, markets, water works, electric lighting 
 plants, manufactories and sanitary improvements have 
 been introduced, competent courts have been established 
 and the province has become one of the most prosperous 
 in India. 
 
 Baroda is called "The Garden of India." It occupies 
 a fine plain with rich alluvial soil, well watered, and 
 almost entirely under cultivation. It produces luxurious 
 crops of grain, cotton, sugar, tobacco and other staples, 
 and the greater part of them are turned from raw material 
 into the finished product in factories scattered through- 
 the state. We were advised that Baroda is the best place 
 in India to study the native arts and fabrics. The manu- 
 facturing is chiefly controlled by Parsees, descendants of 
 Persian fugitives who fled to India and settled in Baroda 
 more than a thousand years ago, and in their temple at 
 Navasari, a thriving manufacturing town, the sacred fire 
 
90 MODERN INDIA 
 
 has been burning' uninterruptedly for five hundred years. 
 The City of Baroda has about 125,000 population. The 
 principal streets arc lined with houses of teakwood, whose 
 fronts are elaborately carved. Their like cannot be seen 
 elsewhere. The maharajah keeps up the elephant stables 
 of his predecessor in which are bred and kept the finest 
 animals in India. He also breeds the best oxen in the 
 empire. 
 
 Through the good offices of Mr, Fee, our consul at 
 Bombay, we received invitations to a Hindu wedding in 
 high life. The groom was a young widower, a merchant 
 of wealth and important commercial connections, a grad- 
 uate of Elphinstone College, speaks English fluently, and 
 is a favorite with the foreign colony. The bride was 
 the daughter of a widow whose late husband was similarly 
 situated, a partner in a rich mercantile and commission 
 house, well known and respected. The family are liberal 
 in their views, and the daughter has been educated at one 
 of the American mission schools, although they still 
 adhere to Hinduism, their ancestral religion. The groom's 
 family are equally liberal, but, like many prominent fami- 
 lies of educated natives, do not have the moral courage 
 or the independence to renounce the faith in which they 
 were born. The inhabitants of India are the most con- 
 servative of all peoples, and while an educated and pro- 
 gressive Hindu will tell you freely that he does not 
 believe in the gods and superstitions of his fathers, and 
 will denounce the Brahmins as ignorant impostors, respect 
 for public opinion will not permit him to make an open 
 declaration of his loss of faith. These two families are 
 examples, and when their sons and daughters are mar- 
 ried, or when they die, observe all the social and religious 
 
TWO HINDU WEDDINGS 91 
 
 customs of their race and preserve the family traditions 
 unbroken. 
 
 The home of the bridegroom's family is an immense 
 wooden house in the native quarter, and when we reached 
 it we had to pass through a crowd of coolies that filled 
 the street. The gate and outside walls were gayly deco- 
 rated with bunting and Japanese lanterns, all ready to be 
 lighted as soon as the sun went down. A native orchestra 
 was playing doleful music in one of the courts, and a 
 brass band of twenty pieces in military uniforms from 
 the barracks was waiting its turn. A hallway which leads 
 to a large drawing-room in the rear of the house was 
 spread with scarlet matting, the walls were hung with 
 gay prints, and Japanese lanterns were suspended from 
 the ceiling at intervals of three or four feet. The first 
 room was filled with women and children eating ices and 
 sweetmeats. Men guests were not allowed to join them. 
 It was then half past four, and we were told that they 
 had been enjoying themselves in that innocent way since 
 noon, and would remain until late in the evening, for it 
 was the only share they could have in the wedding cere- 
 monies. Hindu women and men cannot mingle even on 
 such occasions. 
 
 The men folks were in the large drawing-room, seated 
 in rows of chairs facing each other, with an aisle four or 
 five feet wide in the center. There were all sorts and 
 conditions of men, for the groom has a wide acquaintance 
 and intimate friends among Mohammedans, Jains, Par- 
 sees, Roman Catholics, Protestants and all the many other 
 religions in Bombay, and he invited them to his marriage. 
 Several foreign ladies were given seats in the place of 
 honor at the head of the room around a large gilt chair 
 or throne which stood in the center with a wreath of 
 
92 MODERN INDIA 
 
 flowers carelessly thrown over the back. There were two 
 American missionaries and their wives, a Jesuit priest 
 and several English women. 
 
 Soon after we were seated there was a stir on the out- 
 side and the groom appeared arrayed in the whitest of 
 white linen robes, a turban of white and gold silk, an 
 exquisite cashmere shawl over his shoulders, and a string 
 of diamonds around his neck that were worth a rajah's 
 ransom. His hands were adorned with several hand- 
 some rings, including one great emerald set in diamonds, 
 so big that you could see it across the room. Around his 
 neck was a garland of marigolds that fell to his waist, 
 and he carried a big bridal bouquet in his hand. As soon 
 as he was seated a group of nautch dancers, accompanied 
 by a native orchestra, appeared and performed one of their 
 melancholy dances. The nautches may be very wicked, 
 but they certainly are not attractive in appearance. Their 
 dances are very much like an exercise in the Delsarte 
 method of elocution, being done with the arms more 
 than with the legs, and consisting of slow, graceful ges- 
 ticulations such as a dreamy poet might use when he 
 soliloquizes to the stars. There is nothing sensuous or 
 suggestive in them. The movements are no more im- 
 modest than knitting or quilting a comfortable — and are 
 just about as exciting. Each dance is supposed to be a 
 poem expressed by gesture and posturing — the poetry of 
 motion — a sentimental pantomime, and imaginative Hin- 
 dus claim to be able to follow the story. The orchestra, 
 playing several queer looking fiddles, drums, clarinets 
 and other instruments, is employed to assist in the in- 
 terpretation, and produces the most dreary and monoto- 
 nous sounds without the slightest trace of theme or 
 melody or rhythm. While I don't want to be irrev- 
 
TWO HINDU WEDDINGS 93 
 
 erent, they reminded me of a slang phrase you hear 
 in the country about "the tune the old cow died of." 
 Hindu music is worse than that you hear in China or 
 Japan, because it is so awfully solemn and slow. The 
 Chinese and Japanese give you a lot of noise if they 
 lack harmony, but when a Hindu band reaches a fortissi- 
 mo passage it sounds exactly as if some child were trying 
 to play a bagpipe for the first time. 
 
 When I made an observation concerning the apparent 
 innocence and unattractiveness of the nautch girls to a 
 missionary lady who sat in the next seat, she looked horri- 
 fied, and admonished me in a whisper that, while there 
 was nothing immodest in the performance, they were 
 depraved, deceitful and dissolute creatures, arrayed in 
 gorgeous raiment for the purpose of enticing men. And 
 it is certainly true that they were clad in the most daz- 
 zling costumes of gold brocades and gauzy stuffs that 
 floated like clouds around their heads and shoulders, and 
 their ears, noses, arms, ankles, necks, fingers and toes 
 were all loaded with jewelry. 
 
 But their costumes were not half as gay as those worn 
 by some of the gentlemen guests. The Parsees wore 
 black or white with closely buttoned frocks and caps that 
 look like fly-traps ; the Mohammedans wore flowing robes 
 of white, and the Hindus silks of the liveliest patterns 
 and the most vivid colors. No ballroom belle ever was 
 enveloped by brighter tinted fabrics than the silks, satins, 
 brocades and velvets that were worn by the dignified 
 Hindu gentlemen at this wedding, and their jewels were 
 such as our richest women wear. A Hindu gentleman in 
 full dress must have a necklace, an aigrette of diamonds, a 
 sunburst in front of his turban, and two or three brooches 
 upon his shoulders or breast. And all this over bare legs 
 
94 MODERN INDIA 
 
 and bare feet. They wear slippers or sandals out of 
 doors, but leave them in the hallway or in the vestibule, 
 and cross the threshold of the house in naked feet. The 
 bridegroom was bare legged, but had a pair of embroid- 
 ered slippers on his feet, because he was soon to take a ■ 
 long walk and could not very well stop to put them on 
 without sacrificing appearances. 
 
 They brought us trays of native refreshments, while 
 the nautch girls danced, handed each guest a nosegay and 
 placed a pair of cocoanuts at his feet, which had some 
 deep significance — I could not quite understand what. 
 The groom did not appear to be enjoying himself. He 
 looked very unhappy. He evidently did not like to sit up 
 in a gilded chair so that everybody could stare and make 
 remarks about him, for that is exactly what his guests 
 were doing, criticising his bare legs, commenting upon 
 his jewels and guessing how much his diamond necklace 
 cost. He was quite relieved when a couple of gentlemen, 
 who seemed to be acting as masters of ceremonies, placed 
 a second garland of flowers around his neck — which one 
 of them whispered to me had just come from the bride, 
 the first one having been the gift of his mother — and led 
 him out of the room like a lamb to the slaughter. 
 
 When we reached the street a procession of the guests 
 of honor was formed, while policemen drove the crowd 
 back. First came the military band, then the masters of 
 ceremonies — each having a cane in his hand, with which 
 he motioned back the crowd that lined the road on both 
 sides six or eight tiers deep. Then the groom marched 
 all alone with a dejected look on nis face, and his hands 
 clasped before him. After him came the foreign guests, 
 two and two, as long as they were able to keep the forma- 
 tion, but after going a hundred feet the crowd became so 
 
TWO HINDU WEDDINGS 95 
 
 great and were so anxious to see all that was going on, 
 that they broke the line and mixed up with the wedding 
 party, and even surrounded the solitary groom like a 
 bodyguard, so that we who were coming directly after 
 could scarcely see him. The noisy music of the band 
 had aroused the entire neighborhood, and in the march 
 to the residence of the bride's family we passed between 
 thousands of spectators. The groom was exceedingly 
 nervous. Although night had fallen and the tempera- 
 ture was quite cool, the perspiration was rolling down 
 his face in torrents, and he was relieved when we entered 
 a narrow passage which had been cleared by the police- 
 men. 
 
 The bride's house was decorated in the same manner 
 as the groom's, and upon a tray in the middle of a big 
 room a small slow fire of perfumed wood was burning. 
 The groom was led to the side of it, and stood there, 
 while the guests were seated around him — hooded Hindu 
 women on one side and men and foreign ladies on the 
 other. Then his trainers made him sit down on the floor, 
 cross-legged, like a tailor. Hindus seldom use chairs, or 
 even cushions. Very soon four Brahmins, or priests, 
 appeared from somewhere in the background and seated 
 themselves on the opposite side of the fire. They wore 
 no robes, and were only half dressed. Two were naked 
 to the waist, as well as barefooted and barelegged. One, 
 who had his head shaved like a prize fighter and seemed 
 to be the officiating clergyman, had on what looked like 
 a red flannel shirt. He brought his tools with him, and 
 conducted a mysterious ceremony, which I cannot de- 
 scribe, because it was too long and complicated, and I 
 could not make any notes. A gentleman who had been 
 requested to look after me attempted to explain what it 
 
96 MODERN INDIA 
 
 meant, as the ceremony proceeded, but liis English was 
 very imperfect, and I lost a good deal of the show trying 
 to clear up his meaning. While the chief priest was going 
 through a ritual his deputies chanted mournful and 
 monotonous strains in a minor key — repetitions of the 
 same lines over and over again. They were praying for 
 the favor of the gods, and their approval of the marriage. 
 
 After the groom had endured it alone for a while the 
 bride was brought in by her brother-in-law, who, since 
 the death of her father, has been the head of the house- 
 hold. He was clad in a white gauze undershirt, with 
 short sleeves, and the ordinary Hindu robe wrapped 
 around his waist, and hanging down to his bare knees. 
 The bride had a big bunch of pearls hanging from her 
 upper lip, gold and silver rings and anklets upon her bare 
 feet, and her head was so concealed under wrappings of 
 shawls that she would have smothered in the hot room 
 had not one of her playmates gone up and removed the 
 coverings from her face. This playmate was a lively 
 matron of 14 years, a fellow pupil at the missionary 
 school, who had been married at the age of 9, so she knew 
 all about it, and had adopted foreign manners and cus- 
 toms sufficiently to permit her to go about among the 
 guests, chatting with both gentlemen and ladies with per- 
 fect self-possession. She told us all about the bride, who 
 was her dearest friend, received and passed around the 
 presents as they arrived, and took charge of the pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 The bride sat down on the floor beside the husband that 
 had been chosen for her and timidly clasped his hand 
 while the priests continued chanting, stopping now and 
 then to breathe or to anoint the foreheads of the couple, 
 or to throw something on the fire. There were bowls of 
 
TWO HINDU WEDDINGS 97 
 
 several kinds of food, each having its significance, and 
 several kinds of plants and flowers, and incense, which 
 was thrown into the flames. At one time the chief priest 
 arose from the floor, stretched his legs and read a long 
 passage from a book, which my escort said was the sacred 
 writing in Sanskrit laying down rules and regulations for 
 the government of Hindu wives. But the bride and 
 groom paid very little attention to the priests or to 
 the ceremony. After the first embarrassment was over 
 they chatted familiarly with their friends, both foreign 
 and native, who came and squatted down beside them. 
 The bride's mother cajne quietly into the circle after a 
 while and sat down beside her son-in-law — a slight 
 woman, whose face was entirely concealed. When the 
 performance had been going on for about an hour four 
 more priests appeared and took seats in the background. 
 When I asked my guardian their object, he replied, sar- 
 castically, that it was money, that they were present as 
 witnesses, and each of them would expect a big fee as 
 well as a good supper. 
 
 "Poor people get married with one priest," he added, 
 "but rich people have to have many. It costs a lot of 
 money to get married." 
 
 Every now and then parcels were brought in by serv- 
 ants, and handed to the bride, who opened them with the 
 same eagerness that American girls show about their 
 wedding presents, but before she had been given half a 
 chance to examine them they were snatched away from 
 her and passed around. There were enough jewels to set 
 the groom up in business, for all the relatives on both 
 sides are rich, several beautifully embroidered shawls, a 
 copy of Tennyson's poems, a full set of Ruskin's works, a 
 flexible covered Bible from the bride's school teacher, and 
 
98 MODERN INDIA 
 
 other gifts too numerous to mention. The ceremony 
 soon became tedious and the crowded room was hot and 
 stuffy. It was an ordeal for us to stay as long as we did, 
 and we endured it for a couple of hours, but it was ten 
 times worse for the bride and groom, for they had to sit 
 on the floor over the fire, and couldn't even stretch their 
 legs. They told us that it would take four hours more to 
 finish the ritual. So we asked our hosts to excuse us, 
 offered our sympathy and congratulations to the happy 
 couple, who laughed and joked with us in English, while 
 the priests continued to sing and pray. 
 
VI 
 
 THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA 
 
 The most interesting of all the many religious sects in 
 India are the Parsees, the residue of one of the world's 
 greatest creeds, descendants of the disciples of Zoroaster, 
 and the Persian fire worshipers, who sought refuge in 
 India from the persecution of the all-conquering Moham- 
 medans about the seventh century. They have not in- 
 creased and probably have diminished in numbers, but 
 have retained the faith of their fathers undefiled, which 
 has been described as "the most sublime expression of 
 religious purity and thought except the teachings of 
 Christ." It is a curious fact, however, that although the 
 Parsees are commercially the most enterprising people in 
 India, and the most highly educated, they have never at- 
 tempted to propagate or even to make known their faith 
 to the world. It remained for Anquetil Duperron, a 
 young Frenchman, a Persian scholar, to translate the 
 Zend Avesta, which contains the teachings of Zoroaster, 
 and may be called the Parsee bible. And even now the 
 highest authority in Parsee theology and literature is 
 Professor Jackson, who holds the chair of oriental lan- 
 guages in Columbia University, New York. At this writ- 
 ing Professor Jackson is in Persia engaged upon investi- 
 gations of direct interest to the Parsees, who have the 
 highest regard and affection for him, and perfect con- 
 
 99 
 
loo MODERN INDIA 
 
 fidence in the accuracy of his treatment of their theology 
 in which they permit him to instruct them. 
 
 The Parsees have undoubtedly made more stir in the 
 world in proportion to their population than any other 
 race. They are a small community, and number only 
 94,000 altogether, of whom 76,000 reside in Bombay. 
 They are almost without exception industrious and pros- 
 perous, nearly all being engaged in trade and manufact- 
 uring, and to them the city of Bombay owes the great- 
 est part of its wealth and commercial influence. 
 
 While the Parsees teach pure and lofty morality, and 
 are famous for their integrity, benevolence, good 
 thoughts, good works and good deeds, their method of 
 disposing of their dead is revolting. For, stripped of 
 every thread of clothing, the bodies of their nearest and 
 dearest are exposed to dozens of hungry vultures, which 
 quickly tear the flesh from the bones. 
 
 In a beautiful grove upon the top of a hill overlooking 
 the city of Bombay and the sea, surrounded by a high, 
 ugly wall, are the so-called Towers of Silence, upon 
 which these hideous birds can always be seen, waiting for 
 their feast. They roost upon palm trees in the neighbor- 
 hood, and, often in their flight, drop pieces of human 
 flesh from their beaks or their talons, which lie rotting in 
 the fields below. An English lady driving past the Tow- 
 ers of Silence was naturally horrified when the finger of 
 a dead man was dropped into her carriage by one of those 
 awful birds ; and an army officer told me, that he once 
 picked up by the roadside the forearm and hand of a 
 woman which had been torn from a body only a few 
 hours dead and had evidently fallen during a fight be- 
 tween the birds. The reservoir which stores the water 
 supply of Bombay is situated upon the same hill, not more 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA loi 
 
 than half a mile distant, and for obvious reasons had been 
 covered with a roof. Some years ago the municipal au- 
 thorities, having had their attention called to possible pol- 
 lution of the water, notified the Parsees that the Towers 
 of Silence would have to be removed to a distance from 
 the city, but the rich members of that faith preferred to 
 pay the expense of roofing over the reservoir to abandon- 
 ing what to them is not only sacred but precious ground. 
 The human mind can adjust itself to almost any condi- 
 tions and associations, and a cultured Parsee will en- 
 deavor to convince you by clever arguments that their 
 method is not only humane and natural, but the best sani- 
 tary method ever devised of disposing of the dead. 
 
 Funeral ceremonies are held at the residence of the 
 dead ; prayers are offered and eulogies are pronounced. 
 Then a procession is formed and the hearse is preceded 
 by priests and followed by the male members of the fam- 
 ily and by friends. The body is not placed in a coffin, but 
 is covered with rich shawls and vestments. When the 
 gateway of the outer temple is reached, priests who are 
 permanently attached to the Towers of Silence and reside 
 within the inclosure, meet the procession and take charge 
 of the body, which is first carried to a temple, where 
 prayers are offered, and a sacred fire, kept continually 
 burning there, is replenished. While the friends and 
 mourners are engaged in worship, Nasr Salars, as the at- 
 tendants are called, take the bier to the ante-room of one 
 of the towers. There are five, of circular shape, with 
 walls forty feet high, perfectly plain, and whitewashed. 
 The largest is 276 feet in circumference and cost $150,- 
 000. The entrance is about fifteen or twenty feet from 
 the ground and is reached by a flight of steps. The in- 
 side plan of the building resembles a circular gridiron 
 
I02 MODERN INDIA 
 
 gradually depressed toward the center, at which there is 
 a pit, five feet in diameter. From this pit cement walks 
 radiate like the spokes of a wheel, and between them are 
 three series of compartments extending around the entire 
 tower. Those nearest the center are about four feet long, 
 two feet wide and six inches deep. The next series are 
 a little larger, and the third, larger still, and they are in- 
 tended respectively for men, women and children. 
 
 When the bearers have brought the body into the ante- 
 room of the tower they strip it entirely of its clothing. 
 Valuable coverings are carefully laid away and sent to 
 the chamber of purification, where they are thoroughly 
 fumigated, and afterward returned to the friends. The 
 cotton wrappings are burned. The body is laid in one of 
 the compartments entirely naked, and in half an hour the 
 flesh is completely stripped from the bones by voracious 
 birds that have been eagerly watching the proceedings 
 from the tops of the tall palms that overlook the ceme- 
 tery. There are about two hundred vultures around the 
 place ; most of them are old birds and are thoroughly 
 educated. They know exactly what to expect, and behave 
 with greatest decorum. They never enter the tower until 
 the bearers have left it, and usually are as deliberate and 
 solemn in their movements as a lot of undertakers. But 
 sometimes, when they are particularly hungry, their 
 greed gets the better of their dignity and they quarrel 
 and fight over their prey. 
 
 After the bones are stripped they are allowed to He in 
 the sun and bleach and decay until the compartment they 
 occupy is needed for another body, when the Nasr Salars 
 enter with gloves and tongs and cast them into the cen- 
 tral pit, where they finally crumble into dust. The floor 
 of the tower is so arranged that all the rain that falls 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA 103 
 
 upon it passes into the pit, and the moisture promotes de- 
 composition. The bottom of the pit is perforated and the 
 water impregnated with the dust from the bones is filtered 
 through charcoal and becomes thoroughly disinfected be- 
 fore it is allowed to pass through a sewer into the bay. 
 The pits are the receptacles of the dust of generations, 
 and I am told that so much of it is drained off by the 
 rainfall, as described, that they have never been filled. 
 The carriers are not allowed to leave the grounds, and 
 when a man engages in that occupation he must retire 
 forever from the world, as much as if he were a Trappist 
 monk. Nor can he communicate with anyone except the 
 priests who have charge of the temple. 
 
 The grounds are beautifully laid out. No money or 
 labor has been spared to make them attractive, and com- 
 fortable benches have been placed along the walks where 
 relatives and friends may sit and converse or meditate 
 after the ceremonies are concluded. The Parsees are 
 firm believers in the resurrection, and they expect their 
 mutilated bodies to rise again glorified and incorruptible. 
 The theory upon which their peculiar custom is based is 
 veneration for the elements. Fire is the chief object of 
 their worship, and they cannot allow it to be polluted by 
 burning the dead ; water is almost as sacred, and the soil 
 of the earth is the source of their food, their strength and 
 almost everything that is beautiful. Furthermore, they 
 believe in the equality of all creatures before God, and 
 hence the dust of the rich and the poor mingles in the pit. 
 
 Parsee temples are very plain and the form of worship 
 is extremely simple. None but members of the faith are 
 admitted. The interior of the temple is almost empty, ex- 
 cept for a reading desk occupied by the priest. The walls 
 are without the slightest decoration and are usually 
 
I04 MODERN INDIA 
 
 whitewashed. The sacred fire, the emblem of spiritual 
 life, which is never extinguished, is kept in a small recess 
 in a golden receptacle, and is attended by priests without 
 interruption. They relieve each other every two hours, 
 but the fire is never left alone. 
 
 The Mohammedans have many mosques in Bombay, 
 but none of them is of particular interest. The Hindu or 
 Brahmin temples are also commonplace, with two excep- 
 tions. One of them, known as the Monkey Temple, is 
 covered with carved images of monkeys and other ani- 
 mals. There are said to be 300 of them, measuring from 
 six inches to two feet in height. The other is the "Walk- 
 eshwar," dedicated to the "Sand Lord" occupying a point 
 upon the shore of the bay not far from the water. It has 
 been a holy place for many centuries. The legend says 
 that not long after the creation of the world Rama, one 
 of the most powerful of the gods, while on his way to 
 Ceylon to recover Stia, his bride, who had been kidnaped, 
 halted and camped there for a night and went through 
 various experiences which make a long and tedious story, 
 but of profound interest to Hindu theologians and stu- 
 dents of mythology. The temple is about 150 years old, 
 but does not compare with those in other cities of India. 
 It is surrounded by various buildings for the residence of 
 the Brahmins, lodging places for pilgrims and devotees, 
 which are considered excellent examples of Hindu archi- 
 tecture. Several wealthy families have cottages on the 
 grounds which they occupy for a few days each year on 
 festival occasions or as retreats. 
 
 Upon the land side of the boulevard which skirts the 
 shore of the bay, not far from the university of Bombay, 
 is the burning ghat of the Hindus, where the bodies of 
 their dead are cremated in the open air and in a remark- 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA 105 
 
 ably rude and indifferent manner. The proceedings may 
 be witnessed by any person who takes the trouble to visit 
 the place and has the patience to wait for the arrival of a 
 body. It is just as public as a burial in any cemetery in 
 the United States. Bodies are kept only a few hours 
 after death. Those who die at night are burned the first 
 thing in the morning, so that curious people are usually 
 gratified if they visit the place early. Immediately after 
 a poor Hindu sufferer breathes his last the family retire 
 and professional undertakers are brought in. The latter 
 bathe the body carefully, dress it in plain white cotton 
 cloth, wrap it in a sheet, with the head carefully con- 
 cealed, place it upon a rude bier made of two bamboo 
 poles and cross pieces, with a net work of ropes between, 
 and four men, with the ends of the poles on their 
 shoulders, start for the burning ghat at a dog trot, sing- 
 ing a mournful song. Sometimes they are followed by 
 the sons or the brothers of the deceased, who remain 
 through the burning to see that it is properly done, but 
 more often that duty is entrusted to an employe or a serv- 
 ant or some humble friend of the family in whom they 
 have confidence. Arriving at the burning ghat, negotia- 
 tions are opened with the superintendent or manager, for 
 they are usually private enterprises or belong to corpora- 
 tions and are conducted very much like our cemeteries. 
 The cheapest sort of fire that can be provided costs two 
 rupees, which is sixty-six cents in American money, and 
 prices range from that amount upwards according to the 
 caste and the wealth of the family. When a rich man's 
 body is burned sandal-wood and other scented fuel is 
 used and sometimes the fire is very expensive. After an 
 agreement is reached coolies employed on the place make 
 a pile of wood, one layer pointing one way and the next 
 
io6 MODERN INDIA 
 
 crossed at right angles, a hole left in the center being 
 filled with kindling and quick-burning reeds. The body 
 is lifted from the bier and placed upon it, then more wood 
 is piled on and the kindling is lit with a torch. If there is 
 plenty of dry fuel the corpse is reduced to ashes in about 
 two hours. Usually the ashes are claimed by friends, 
 who take them to the nearest temple and after prayers 
 and other ceremonies cast them into the waters of the 
 bay. 
 
 The death rate in Bombay is very large. The bubonic 
 plague prevails there with a frightful mortality. Hence 
 cremation is safer than burial. In the province of Bom- 
 bay the total deaths from all diseases average about 
 600,000 a year, and you can calculate what an enormous 
 area would be required for cemeteries. In 1900, on 
 account of the famine, the deaths ran up to 1,318,783, 
 and in 1902 they were more than 800,000. Of these 128,- 
 259 were from the plague, 13,600 from cholera, 5,340 
 from smallpox, and 2,212 from other contagious diseases. 
 Hence the burning ghats were very useful, for at least 
 80 percent of the dead were Brahmins and their bodies 
 were disposed of in that way. 
 
 It is difficult to give an accurate idea of Brahminism 
 in a brief manner, but theoretically it is based upon the 
 principles set forth in a series of sacred books known as 
 the Vedas, written about 4,000 years ago. Its gods were 
 originally physical forces and phenomena — ^nature wor- 
 ship, — which was once common to all men, the sun, fire, 
 water, light, wind, the procreative and productive ener- 
 gies and the mystery of sex and birth, which impressed 
 with wonder and awe the mind of primitive humanity. 
 As these deities became more and more vague and indef- 
 inite in the popular mind, and the simple, instinctive ap- 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA 107 
 
 peal of the human soul to a Power it could not see or 
 comprehend was gradually debased into what is now 
 known as Brahminism, and the most repugnant, revolt- 
 ing, cruel, obscene and vicious rites ever practiced by sav- 
 ages or barbarians. There is nothing in the Vedas to jus- 
 tify the cruelties of the Hindu gods and the practices of 
 the priests. They do not authorize animal worship, caste, 
 child-marriage , the burning of widows or perpetual 
 widowhood, but the Brahmins have built up a stupendous 
 system of superstition, of which they alone pretend to 
 know the mystic meaning, and their supremacy is estab- 
 lished. Thus the nature worship of the Vedas has dis- 
 appeared and has given place to terrorism, demon wor- 
 ship, obscenity, and idolatry. 
 
 The three great gods of the Hindus are Siva, Vishnu 
 and Brahma, with innumerable minor deities, some 30,- 
 000,000 altogether, which have been created during emer- 
 gencies from time to time by worshipers of vivid imagin- 
 ations. When we speak of Hinduism or Brahminism as 
 a religion, however, it is only a conventional use of a 
 term, because it is not a religion in the sense that we are 
 accustomed to apply that word. In all other creeds there 
 is an element of ethics ; morality, purity, justice and faith 
 in men, but none of these qualities is taught by the Brah- 
 mins. With them the fear of unseen powers and the 
 desire to obtain their favor is the only rule of life and the 
 only maxim taught to the people. And it is the founda- 
 tion upon which the influence and power of the Brahmins 
 depend. The world and all its inhabitants are at the 
 mercy of cruel, fickle and unjust gods ; the gods are 
 under the influence of the Brahmins ; hence the Brahmins 
 are holy men and must be treated accordingly. No Hindu 
 will offend a Brahmin under any circumstances, lest his 
 
io8 MODERN INDIA 
 
 curse may call down all forms of misfortune. A Hindu 
 proverb says : 
 
 "What is in the Brahmin's books, that is in the Brah- 
 min's heart. Neither you nor I knew there was so much 
 evil in the world." 
 
 The power of the priests or Brahmins over the Hindus 
 is one of the phenomena of India. I do not know where 
 you can get a better idea of their influence and of the 
 reverence that is paid to them than in "Kim," Rudyard 
 Kipling's story of an Irish boy who was a disciple of an 
 old Thibetan lama or Buddhist monk. That story is ap- 
 preciated much more keenly by people who have lived or 
 traveled in India, because it appeals to them. There is a 
 familiar picture on every page, and it is particularly val- 
 uable as illustrating the relations between the Brahmins 
 and the people. "These priests are invested," said one of 
 the ablest writers on Indian affairs, "with a reverence 
 which no extreme of abject poverty, no infamy of private 
 conduct can impair, and which is beyond anything that a 
 mind not immediately conversant with the fact can con- 
 ceive. They are invariably addressed with titles of divin- 
 ity, and are paid the highest earthly honors. The oldest 
 and highest members of other castes implore the blessing 
 of the youngest and poorest of theirs ; they are the chosen 
 recipients of all charities, and are allowed a license in 
 their private relations which would be resented as a dead- 
 ly injury in any but themselves." 
 
 This reverence is largely due to superstitions which the 
 Brahmins do their best to cultivate and encourage. 
 There are 30,000,000 gods in the Hindu pantheon, and 
 each attends to the affairs of his own particular jurisdic- 
 tion. INIost of them are wicked, cruel and unkind, and de- 
 light in bringing misfortunes upon their devotees, which 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA 109 
 
 can only be averted by the intercession of a priest. Gods 
 and demons haunt every hill and grove and gorge and 
 dark corner. Their names are usually unknown, but they 
 go on multiplying as events or incidents occur to which 
 the priests can give a supernatural interpretation. These 
 gods are extremely sensitive to disrespect or neglect, and 
 unless they are constantly propitiated they will bring all 
 sorts of disasters. The Brahmin is the only man Vv'ho 
 knows how to make them good-natured. He can handle 
 them exactly as he likes, and they will obey his will. 
 Hence the superstitious peasants yield everything, their 
 money, their virtue, their lives, as compensation for the 
 intercession of the priests in their behalf. 
 
 The census of 1901 returned 2,728,812 priests, which 
 is an average of one for every seventy-two members of 
 the Hindu faith, and it is believed that, altogether, there 
 are more than 9,000,000 persons including monks, nuns, 
 ascetics, fakirs, sorcerers, chelas, and mendicants or va- 
 rious kinds and attendants employed about the temples 
 who are dependent upon the public for support. A large 
 part of the income of the pious Hindu is devoted to the 
 support of priests and the feeding of pilgrims. Wherever 
 you see it, wherever you meet it, and especially when you 
 come in contact with it as a sightseer, Brahminism ex- 
 cites nothing but pity, indignation and abhorrence. 
 
 Buddhism is very different, although Buddha lived and 
 died a Hindu, and the members of that sect still claim 
 that he was the greatest, the wisest and the best of all 
 Brahmins. No two religions are so contradictory and in- 
 compatible as that taught by Buddha and the modern 
 teachings of the Brahmins. The underlying principles of 
 Buddha's faith are love, charity, self-sacrifice, unselfish- 
 ness, universal brotherhood and spiritual and physical 
 
no MODERN INDIA 
 
 purity. He believed in none of the present practices of 
 the Hindu priests. There is a striking resemblance be- 
 tween the teachings of Buddha and the teachings of 
 Christ. Passages in the New Testament, reporting the 
 words of the Savior, seem like plagiarisms from the max-- 
 ims of Buddha, and, indeed, Buddhist scholars tell of a 
 myth concerning a young Jew who about five centuries 
 after Buddha, and twenty centuries ago, came from Syria 
 with a caravan and spent several years under instruction 
 in a Buddhist monastery in Thibet. Thus they account 
 for the silence of the scriptures concerning the doings of 
 Christ between the ages of 12 and 20, and for the similar- 
 ity between his sermons and those preached by the 
 founder of their religion. Buddha taught that good 
 actions bring happiness and bad actions misery ; that sel- 
 fishness is the cause of sin, sorrow and suffering, and that 
 the abolition of self, sacrifices for others and the suppres- 
 sion of passions and desires is the only true plan of salva- 
 tion. He died 543 years before Jesus was born, and with- 
 in the next two centuries his teachings were accepted by 
 two-thirds of the people of India, but by the tenth century 
 of our era they had been forgotten, and a great trans- 
 formation had taken place among the Indo-Ayran races, 
 who began to worship demons instead of angels and teach 
 fear instead of hope, until now there are practically no 
 Buddhists in India with the exception of the Burmese, 
 who are almost unanimous in the confession of that faith. 
 It is a singular phenomenon that Buddhism should so dis- 
 appear from the land of its birth, although 450,000,000 
 of the human race still turn to its founder with pure 
 affection as the wisest of teachers and the noblest of 
 ideals. 
 
 The teachings of Buddha survive in a sect known as 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA in 
 
 the Jains, founded by Jina, or Mahavira, a Buddhist 
 priest, about a thousand years ago, as a protest against 
 the cruel encroachments of the Hindus. Jina was a Per- 
 fect One, who subdued all worldly desires ; who lived an 
 unselfish life, practiced the golden rule, harmed no living 
 thing, and attained the highest aim of the soul, right 
 knowledge, right conduct, temperance, sobriety, chastity 
 and a Holy Calm. 
 
 There are now 1,334,148 Jains in India, and among 
 them are the wealthiest, most highly cultured and most 
 charitable of all people. They carry their love of life to 
 extremes. A true believer will not harm an insect, not 
 even a mosquito or a flea. All Hindus are kind to ani- 
 mals, except when they ill treat them through ignorance, 
 as is often the case. The Brahmins represent that mur- 
 der, robbery, deception and every other form of crime 
 and vice may be committed in the worship of their gods. 
 They teach that the gods themselves are guilty of the 
 most hideous depravity, and that the sacrifice of wives, 
 children, brothers, sisters and friends to convenience or 
 expediency for selfish ends is justifiable. Indeed, the 
 British government has been compelled to interfere and 
 prohibit the sacrifice of human life to propitiate the Hin- 
 du gods. It has suppressed the thugs, who, as you have 
 read, formerly went about the country killing people in 
 order to acquire holiness ; it has prohibited the awful pro- 
 cessions of the car of Juggernaut, before which hyster- 
 ical fanatics used to throw their own bodies, and the 
 bodies of their children, to be crushed under the iron 
 wheels, in the hope of pleasing some monster among their 
 deities. The suppression of infanticide, which is still en- 
 couraged by the Brahmins, is now receiving the vigilant 
 attention of the authorities. 
 
112 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Every effort has been made during the last fifty years 
 to prevent the awful cruelties to human beings that for- 
 merly were common in Hindu worship, but no police in- 
 tervention has ever been necessary to protect dumb ani- 
 mals ; nobody was ever punished for cruelty to them ; on 
 the contrary, animal worship is one of the most general of 
 practices among the Hindus, and many beasts and rep- 
 tiles are sacred. But the Jains go still further and estab- 
 lish hospitals for aged and infirm animals. You can see 
 them in Bombay, in Delhi, Lucknow, Calcutta and other 
 places where the Jains are strong. Behind their walls 
 may be found hundreds of decrepit horses, diseased cows 
 and bullocks, many dogs and cats and every kind of sick, 
 lame and infirm beast. Absurd stories are told strangers 
 concerning the extremes to which this benevolence is car- 
 ried, and some of them have actually appeared in pub- 
 lished narratives of travel in India. One popular story is 
 that when a flea lights upon the body of a Jain he cap- 
 tures it carefully, puts it in a receptacle and sends it to an 
 asylum where fat coolies are hired to sit around all day 
 and night and allow fleas, mosquitoes and other insects to 
 feed upon them. But although untrue, these ridiculous 
 stories are valuable as illustrating the principles in which 
 the Jains believe. They are strict vegetarians. The true 
 believers will not kill an animal or a fish or a bird, or any- 
 thing that breathes, for any purpose, and everybody can 
 see that they strictly practice what they preach. 
 
 His most gracious majesty, King of Great Britain and 
 Ireland and Emperor of India, has more Mohammedan 
 subjects than the Great Turk or any other ruler. They 
 numbered 62,458,061 at the last census. They are a clean, 
 manly, honorable and industrious portion of the popula- 
 tion. Commercially they do not rank as high as the Par- 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA 113 
 
 sees, who number only 94,190, or the Jains, who number 
 1,334,148, but are vastly superior to the Hindus from any 
 point of view. They are not so ignorant nor so filthy nor 
 so superstitious nor so submissive to their priests. They 
 are self-respecting and independent, and while the believ- 
 ers in no other creed are more scrupulous in the perform- 
 ance of their religious duties, they are not in any measure 
 under the control or the dictation of their mullahs. They 
 have their own schools, called kuttebs, they take care of 
 their own poor very largely ; drunkenness and gambHng 
 are very rare among them. They are hospitable, kind to 
 animals and generous. The difference between the Mo- 
 hammedans and the Hindus may be seen in the most 
 forcible manner in their temples. It is an old saying that 
 while one god created all men, each man creates his own 
 god, and that is strikingly true among the ignorant, 
 superstitious people of the East. The Hindu crouches in 
 a shadow to escape the attention of his god, while the Mo- 
 hammedan publicly prays to his five times a day in the 
 nearest mosque, and if no mosque is near he kneels where 
 he stands, and takes full satisfaction in a religion of hope 
 instead of fear. 
 
 From the political standpoint the Mohammedans are a 
 very important factor in the situation in India. They are 
 more independent than the Hindus ; they occupy a more 
 influential position than their numbers entitle them to; 
 they have most profound pride in their religion and race, 
 and in their social and intellectual superiority, and the 
 more highly they are educated the more manly, self- 
 reliant and independent they become, and the feeling be- 
 tween the Mohammedans and the Hindus is bitterly 
 hostile. So much so as to make them a bulwark of the 
 government. Several authorities told me that Moham- 
 
114 MODERN INDIA 
 
 medans make the best officials in the service and can be 
 trusted farther than any other class, but, speakinj^: p^ener- 
 ally, Islam has been corrupted and debased in India just 
 as it has been everywhere else. 
 
 One of the results of this corruption is the sect knowji 
 as Sikhs, which numbers about 2,195,268. It thrives best 
 in the northern part of India, and furnishes the most re- 
 liable policemen and the best soldiers for the native army. 
 The Sikhs retain much that is good among the teachings 
 of Mohammed, but have a bible of their own, called the 
 Abi-granth, made up of the sermons of Nanak, the 
 founder of the sect, who died in the year 1530. It is full 
 of excellent moral precepts ; it teaches the brotherhood of 
 man, the equality of the sexes ; it rejects caste, and em- 
 braces all of the good points in Buddhism, with a panthe- 
 ism that is very confusing. It would seem that the Sikhs 
 worship all gods who are good to men, and reject the de- 
 monology of the Hindus. They believe in one Supreme 
 Being, with attributes similar to the Allah of the Moham- 
 medans, and recognize Mohammed as his prophet and ex- 
 ponent of his will. They have also adopted several Hin- 
 du deities in a sort of indirect way, although the Sikhs 
 strictly prohibit idolatry. Their worship is pure and sim- 
 ple. Their temples are houses of prayer, where they, 
 meet, sing hymns, repeat a ritual and receive pieces of 
 "karah prasad," a consecrated pastry, which means "the 
 effectual offering." They are tolerant, and not only ad- 
 mit strangers to their worship, but invite them to partici- 
 pate in their communion. 
 
 The morning we arrived in Agra we swallowed a hasty 
 breakfast and hurried off to the great mosque to witness 
 the ceremonies of what might be termed the Mohamme- 
 dan Easter, although the anniversary has an entirely dif- 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA 115 
 
 ferent significance. The month of Ramadan is spent by 
 the faithful followers of the Prophet in a long fast, and 
 the night before it is broken, called Lailatul-Kadr, or 
 "night of power," is celebrated in rejoicing, because it is 
 the night on which the Koran is supposed to have come 
 down from heaven. In the morning following, which is 
 as much a day of rejoicing as our Christmas, the men of 
 Islam gather at the mosques and engage in a service of 
 thanksgiving to Allah for the blessings they and their 
 families have enjoyed during the year past, and pray for 
 a repetition of the same mercies for the year to come. 
 This festival is called the "Idu 1-Fitr," and we were for- 
 tunate enough to witness one of the most impressive 
 spectacles I have ever seen. Women never appear, but 
 the entire male population, with their children assembled 
 at the great park which surrounds the mosque, clad in 
 festival attire, each bringing a prayer rug to spread upon 
 the ground. About ten thousand persons of all ages and 
 all classes came on foot and in all sorts of vehicles, with 
 joyous voices and congratulations to each other that 
 seemed hearty enough to include the whole world. 
 Taking advantage of their good humor and the thankful 
 spirits hundreds of beggars were squatting along the 
 roadside and appealing to every passerby in pitiful tones. 
 And nearly every one responded. Some people brought 
 bags of rice, beans and wheat ; others brought cakes and 
 bread, but the greater number invested in little sea shells 
 which are used in the interior of India as currency, and 
 one hundred of them are worth a penny. 
 
 Rich people filled their pockets with these shells and 
 scattered them by hands ful among the crowd, and the 
 shrieking beggars scrambled for them on the ground. 
 There were long lines of food peddlers, with portable 
 
ii6 MODERN INDIA 
 
 stoves, and tables upon which were spread morsels which 
 the natives of India considered delicacies, but they were 
 not very tempting to us. The food peddlers drove a 
 profitable trade because almost every person present had 
 been fasting for a lunar month and had a sharp appetite 
 to satisfy. After the services the rich and the poor ate 
 together, masters and servants, because Mohammed 
 knew no caste, and it was an interesting sight to see the 
 democratic spirit of the worshipers, for the rich and the 
 poor, the master and the servant, knelt down side by side 
 upon the same rug or strip of matting and bowed their 
 heads to the ground in homage of the God that made 
 them all. Families came together in carriages, bullock 
 carts, on the backs of camels, horses, mules, donkeys, all 
 the male members of the household from the baby to the 
 grandfather, and were attended by all men servants of the 
 family or the farm. They washed together at the basins 
 where the fountains were spouting more joyously than 
 usual, and then moved forward, laughing and chattering, 
 toward 'the great mosque, selected places which seemed 
 most convenient, spread their rugs, matting, blankets and 
 sheets upon the ground, sat in long rows facing Mecca, 
 and gossiped cheerfully together until the great high 
 priest, surrounded by mullahs or lower priests, appeared 
 in front of the Midrab, the place in every mosque from 
 which the Koran is read, and shouted for attention. 
 
 Ram Zon, one of our "bearers," who is a Mohammedan, 
 disappeared without permission or notice early in the 
 morning, and did not report for duty that day. His 
 piety was greater than his sense of obligation to his em- 
 ployers, and I saw him in the crowd earnestly going 
 through the violent exercise which attends the worship 
 of Islam. 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA 117 
 
 When the hour for commencing the ceremony drew 
 near the entire courtyard, several acres in extent, was 
 covered with worshipers arranged in rows about eight 
 feet apart from north to south, all facing the west, with 
 their eyes toward Mecca in expectant attitudes. The 
 sheikh has a powerful voice, and by long experience has 
 acquired the faculty of throwing it a long distance, and, 
 as he intoned the service, mullahs were stationed at dif- 
 ferent points to repeat his words so that everybody could 
 hear. The first sound was a long wailing cry like the call 
 of the muezzeins from the minarets at the hour of prayer. 
 It was for the purpose of concentrating the attention of 
 the vast audience which arose to its feet and stood mo- 
 tionless with hands clasped across their breasts. Then, 
 as the reading proceeded, the great crowd, in perfect uni- 
 son, as if it had practiced daily for months, performed the 
 same motions one after the other. It was a remarkable 
 exhibition of precision. No army of well drilled troops 
 could have done better. 
 
 The following were the motions, each in response to 
 the intonation of a prayer by the high priest : 
 
 1. Both hands to forehead, palms and fingers together, 
 in the attitude of prayer. 
 
 2. Bend body forward at right angles, three times in 
 succession, keeping hands in the same position. 
 
 3. Return to upright position, with hands lowered to 
 the breast. 
 
 4. Bow head three times to the ground. 
 
 5. Rise and stand motionless with hands at sides. 
 
 6. Hands lifted to ears and returned to side, motions 
 three times repeated. 
 
 7. Body at right angles again, with hands clasped at 
 forehead. 
 
ii8 MODERN INDIA 
 
 8. Body erect, kneel and bow forward, touching the 
 forehead three times to the earth. 
 
 9. Fall back upon knees and with folded hands. 
 
 10. Rise, stand at attention with clasped hands until 
 the cry of the mullah announced that the ceremony was 
 over ; whereupon everybody turned to embrace his family 
 and friends in a most affectionate manner, again and 
 again. Some were crying, some were laughing, and all 
 seemed to be in a state of suppressed excitement. Their 
 emotions had been deeply stirred, and long fasting is apt 
 to produce hysteria. 
 
 The boom of a cannon in a neighboring fortress, was a 
 signal that the obligations of Ramadan had been ful- 
 filled, that the fast was broken, and thousands of people 
 rushed pell-mell to the eating stands to gorge themselves 
 with sweetmeats and other food. The more dignified and 
 aristocratic portion of the crowd calmly sat down again 
 upon their rugs and mats and watched their servants un- 
 load baskets of provisions upon tablecloths, napkins and 
 trays which they spread upon the ground. Not less than 
 seven or eight thousand persons indulged in this picnic, 
 but there was no wine or beer ; nothing stronger than tea 
 or coffee, because the Koran forbids it. And after their 
 feast at the mosque the rest of the day was spent in re- 
 joicing. Gay banners of all colors were displayed from 
 the windows of Mohammedan houses, festoons of flowers 
 were hung over the doors, and from the windowsills ; 
 boys were seen rushing through the streets loaded with 
 bouquets sent from friend to friend with compliments and 
 congratulations ; firecrackers were exploded in the gar- 
 dens and parks, and during the evening displays of fire- 
 works were made to entertain the Moslem population, 
 who were assembled in each other's houses or at their 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA 119 
 
 favorite cafes, or were promenading the streets, singing 
 and shouting and behaving very much as our people do 
 on the Fourth of July. 
 
VII 
 
 HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 
 
 The present form of government in India was adopted 
 in 1858, after the terrible Sepoy mutiny had demonstrated 
 the inabihty of the East India Company to control affairs. 
 By an act of parliament all territory, revenues, tributes 
 and property of that great corporation, which had a mo- 
 nopoly of the Indian trade, and, next to the Hanseatic 
 League of Germany, was the greatest Trust ever formed, 
 were vested in the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 who in 1876 assumed the additional title of Empress of 
 India. The title and authority were inherited by Ed- 
 ward VII. He governs through the Secretary of State 
 for India, who is a Cabinet minister, and a Council of not 
 less than ten members, nine of whom must have the prac- 
 tical knowledge and experience gained by a residence of 
 at least ten years in India and not more than ten years 
 previous to the date of their appointment. This Council 
 is more of an advisory than an executive body. It has no 
 initiative or authority, but is expected to confer with and 
 review the acts of the Secretary of State for India, who 
 can make no grants or appropriations from the revenues 
 or decide any questions of importance without the con- 
 currence of a majority of its members. The Council 
 meets every week in London, receives reports and com- 
 munications and acts upon them. 
 
 The supreme authority in India is the Viceroy, the 
 
 120 
 
HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 121 
 
 direct personal representative of the emperor in all his 
 relations with his 300,000,000 Indian subjects; but, as a 
 matter of convenience, he makes his reports to and re- 
 ceives his instructions from the Secretary of State for 
 India, who represents that part of the empire both in the 
 ministry and in parliament. The present viceroy is the 
 Right Honorable George Nathaniel Curzon, who was 
 raised to the peerage in October, 1898, as Baron Curzon 
 of Kedleston. He is the eldest son of Lord Scarsdale, 
 was born Jan. 11, 1859, was educated at Eton and Ox- 
 ford ; selected journalism as his profession ; became cor- 
 respondent of the London Times in China, India and 
 Persia ; was elected to parliament from Lancashire in 
 1886, and served until 1898; was private secretary to the 
 Marquis of Salisbury, and under-secretary of state for 
 India in 1891-92 ; under-secretary of state for foreign 
 affairs in 1895-98; married Mary Leiter, daughter of Mr., 
 L. Z. Leiter of Washington and Chicago, in 1895, and 
 was appointed viceroy of India to succeed the Earl of 
 Elgin, September, 1898. 
 
 There have been twenty-five viceroys or governors 
 general of India since Warren Hastings in 1774, and the 
 list includes some of the ablest statesmen in English his- 
 tory, but Lord Curzon is the only man in the list who has 
 ever been his own successor. When his first term ex- 
 pired in September, 1903, he was immediately reap- 
 pointed for another five years. Whether he continues 
 through the second term depends upon certain contingen- 
 cies, but it is entirely probable that he will remain, be- 
 cause he has undertaken certain reforms and enterprises 
 that he desires to complete. His administration has been 
 not only a conspicuous but a remarkable success. Al- 
 though he has been severely criticised for his administra- 
 
122 MODERN INDIA 
 
 tivc policy and many of his official acts have been opposed 
 and condemned, the sources from which the criticisms 
 have come often corroborate the wisdom and confirm the 
 success of the acts complained of. Lord Cornwallis was 
 twice Governor General of India, but there was a long 
 interval between his terms, the first beginning in 1786 
 and the second in 1805. He is the only man except Lord 
 Curzon who has been twice honored by appointment to 
 the highest office and the greatest responsibility under 
 the British crown except that of the prime minister. 
 
 The Viceroy is assisted in the administration of the 
 government by a cabinet or council of five members, se- 
 lected by himself, subject to the approval of the king. 
 Each member is assigned to the supervision of one of the 
 executive departments, — finance, military, public works, 
 revenue, agriculture and legislative. The viceroy himself 
 takes personal charge of foreign affairs. The com- 
 mander in chief of the army in India, at present Lord 
 Kitchener, is ex-officio member of the council. 
 
 For legislative purposes the council is expanded by the 
 addition of ten members, appointed by the Viceroy from 
 among the most competent British and native residents of 
 India upon the recommendation of provincial, industrial 
 and commercial bodies. The remaining members are the 
 heads of the various executive departments of the gov- 
 ernment. By these men, who serve for a period of five 
 years, and whose proceedings are open to the public and 
 are reported and printed verbatim, like the proceedings 
 of Congress, the laws governing India are made, subject 
 to the approval of the Viceroy, who retains the right of 
 veto, and in turn is responsible to the British parliament 
 and to the king. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the system of government in 
 
HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 123 
 
 India is simple and liberal. The various industries and 
 financial interests, and all of the great provinces which 
 make up the empire, have a voice in framing the laws 
 that apply to the people at large ; but for convenience the 
 territory is divided into nine great provinces, as follows : 
 
 Madras, with a governor whose salary is $40,000 a 
 year. 
 
 Bombay, whose governor receives the same salary. 
 
 Bengal, with a lieutenant governor ; salary, $33,000. 
 
 United Provinces, lieutenant governor ; salary, $33,000. 
 
 Punjab, lieutenant governor ; salary, $33,000. 
 
 Burma, lieutenant governor ; salary, $33,000. 
 
 Assam, chief commissioner ; salary, $16,500. 
 
 Central Provinces, chief commissioner, $16,500. 
 
 Northwestern Frontier Province, governed by an agent 
 to the governor general, whose salary is $16,500. 
 
 The governors of Bombay and Madras are appointed 
 by the king; the lieutenant governors and commissioners 
 by the Viceroy. All of them have legislative councils 
 and complete executive organizations similar to that of 
 the general government at Calcutta. Each makes its own 
 local laws and enjoys administrative independence sim- 
 ilar to that of the states of the American Union, and is 
 seldom interfered with by the Viceroy or the authorities 
 in London, the purpose being to encourage home rule as 
 far as possible. The provinces are divided into districts, 
 which are the units of administration, and each district is 
 under the control of an executive officer, who is respons- 
 ible to the governor of the province. 
 
 Exclusive of the great provinces named are eighty-two 
 of the ancient principalities, most of them retaining their 
 original boundaries, governed by native chiefs, who are 
 allowed more or less independence, according to their 
 
124 MODERN INDIA 
 
 ability, wisdom and zeal. The control exercised by the 
 central government varies in the different states, but 
 there arc certain general rules which are applied to all. 
 The native princes have no right to make war or peace, or 
 communicate officially with each other or with foreign 
 governments except through the Viceroy. They are per- 
 mitted to maintain a limited independent military force ; 
 they are allowed to impose a certain amount of taxes ; no 
 European is allowed to reside at their courts without 
 their consent, but commerce, trade, industry, education, 
 religious worship, the press and other rights and privi- 
 leges are free to all just as much as in England or the 
 United States. The native chiefs are not permitted to in- 
 terfere with the judiciary, which has a separate and in- 
 dependent organization, as in Great Britain, with the 
 Viceroy and the council of state corresponding to the 
 House of Lords, as the highest court of appeal. Each 
 native chief is "assisted" in his government by a "Res- 
 ident," who is appointed by and reports to the Viceroy, 
 and is expected to guide the policy and official acts of the 
 native ruler with tact and delicacy. He remains in the 
 background as much as possible, assumes no authority 
 and exercises no prerogatives, but serves as a sort of am- 
 bassador from the Viceroy and friendly adviser to the 
 native prince. 
 
 The following is a list of the ruling native princes in 
 the order of their rank as recognized by the British gov- 
 ernment, and the salutes to which they are entitled : 
 
 Salute of twenty-one guns — 
 
 Baroda, the Maharaja (Gaikwar) of. 
 Hyderabad, the Nizam of. 
 Mysore, the Maharaja of. 
 
HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 125 
 
 Salute of nineteen guns — 
 
 Bhopal, the Begam (or Newab) of. 
 Gwalior, the Maharaja (Singhai) of. 
 Indore, the Maharaja (Holkar) of. 
 Jammu and Kashmire, the Maharaja of. 
 Kalat, the Khan of. 
 Kolhapur, the Maharaja of. 
 Mewar (Udaipur), the Maharaja of. 
 Travancore, the Maharaja of. 
 
 Sakite of seventeen guns — 
 Bahawalpur, the Navvab of. 
 Bharatpur, the Maharaja of. 
 Bikanir, the Maharaja of. 
 Bundi, the Maharao Raja of. 
 Cochin, the Raja of. 
 Cutch, the Rao of. 
 Jeypore, the Maharaja of. 
 KarauH, the Maharaja of. 
 Kota, the Maharao of. 
 Marwar (Jodhpur), the Maharaja of. 
 Patiala, the Maharaja of. 
 Rewa, the Maharaja of. 
 Tonk, the Newab of. 
 
 Salute of fifteen guns — 
 Alwar, the Maharaja of. 
 Banswara, the Maharawal of. 
 Datia, the Maharaja of. 
 Dewas (senior branch), the Raja of. 
 Dewas (junior branch), the Raja of. 
 Dhar, the Raja of. 
 Dholpur, the Maharaja Rana of. 
 Dungarpur, the Maharawal of. 
 
126 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Idar, the Maharaja of. 
 Jaisalmir, the Maharawal of. 
 Khairpur, the Mir of. 
 Kishangarh, the Maharaja of. 
 Orchha, the Maharaja of. 
 Partabgarth, the Marharawat of. 
 Sikkam, the Maharaja of. 
 Sirohi, the Maharao of. 
 
 Salute of thirteen guns- 
 Benares, the Raja of. 
 Cooch Behar, the Maharaja of. 
 Jaora, the Nawab of. 
 Rampur, the Newab of. 
 Tippera, the Raja of. 
 
 Salute of eleven guns— 
 Agaigarh, the Maharaja of. 
 Baoni, the Newab of. 
 Bhaunagar, the Thakur Sahib of. 
 Bijawar, the Maharaja of. 
 Cambay, the Nawab of. 
 Chamba, the Raja of. 
 Charkhari, the Maharaja of. 
 Chhatarpur, the Raja of. 
 Faridkot, the Raja of. 
 Gondal, the Thakur Sahib of. 
 Janjira, the Newab of. 
 Jhabua, the Raja of. 
 Jahllawar, the Raj-Rana of. 
 Jind, the Raja of. 
 Gunagarth, the Newab of. 
 Kahlur, the Rajah of. 
 Kapurthala, the Raja of. 
 
HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 127 
 
 Mandi, the Raja of. 
 Manipur, the Raja of. 
 Morvi, the Thakiir Sahib of. 
 Nabha, the Raja of. 
 Narsingarh, the Raja of. 
 Nawanagar, the Jam of. 
 Palanpur, the Diwan of. 
 Panna, the Maharaja of. 
 Porbandar, the Rana of. 
 Pudukota, the Raja of. 
 Radhanpiir, the Newab of. 
 Rajgarth, the Raja of. 
 Rajpipla, the Raja of. 
 Ratlam, the Raja of. 
 Sailana, the Raja of. 
 Samthar, the Raja of. 
 Sirmur (Nahan), the Raja of. 
 Sitamau, the Raja of. 
 Suket, the Raja of. 
 Tehri (Garhwal), the Raja of. 
 
 The Viceroy has a veto over the acts of the native 
 princes as he has over those of the provincial governors, 
 and can depose them at will, but such heroic measures are 
 not adopted except in extreme cases of bad behavior or 
 misgovernment. Lord Curzon has deposed two rajahs 
 during the five years he has been Viceroy, but his gen- 
 eral policy has been to stimulate their ambitions, to in- 
 duce them to adopt modern ideas and methods and to 
 educate their people. 
 
 Within the districts are municipalities which have local 
 magistrates and councils, commissioners, district and 
 local boards and other bodies for various purposes sim- 
 
128 MODERN INDIA 
 
 ilar to those of our county ami city orgjanizations. The 
 elective franchise is being extended in more or less de- 
 gree, according to circumstances, all over India, suffrage 
 being conferred upon taxpayers only. The municipal 
 boards have care of the roads, water supply, sewerage,- 
 sanitation, public lighting, markets, schools, hospitals and 
 other institutions and enterprises of public utility. They 
 impose taxes, collect revenues and expend them subject to 
 the approval of the provincial governments. In all of the 
 large cities a number of Englishmen and other foreigners 
 are members of boards and committees and take an active 
 part in local administration, but in the smaller towns and 
 villages the government is left entirely to natives, who 
 often show conspicuous capacity. 
 
 The policy of Lord Curzon has been to extend home 
 rule and self-government as rapidly and as far as circum- 
 stances will justify. The population of India is a dense, 
 inert, ignorant, depraved and superstitious mass of beings 
 whose actions are almost entirely controlled by signs and 
 omens, and by the dictation of the Brahmin priests. They 
 are therefore not to be trusted with the control of their 
 own affairs, but there is a gradual and perceptible im- 
 provement in their condition, which is encouraged by the 
 authorities in every possible way. And as fast as they 
 show themselves competent they are trusted with the re- 
 sponsibility of the welfare of themselves and their neigh- 
 bors. The habitual attitude of the Hindu is crouching 
 upon the ground. The British government is trying to 
 raise him to a standing posture, to make him a man in- 
 stead of the slave of his superstitions. 
 
 No one can visit India, no one can read its history or 
 study its statistics, without admitting the success and 
 recognizing the blessings of British occupation. The 
 
HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 129 
 
 government has had its ups and downs. There have been 
 terrible bkinders and criminal mistakes, which we are 
 in danger of repeating in the Philippine Islands, but the 
 record of British rule during the last half-century — since 
 the Sepoy mutiny, which taught a valuable lesson at an 
 awful cost — ^has been an almost uninterrupted and un- 
 broken chapter of peace, progress and good government. 
 Until then the whole of India never submitted to a single 
 ruler. For nearly a thousand years it was a perpetual 
 battlefield, and not since the invasion of Alexander the 
 Great have the people enjoyed such liberty or tranquillity 
 as they do today. Three-eighths of the country still 
 remains under the authority of hereditary native rulers 
 with various degrees of independence. Foreigners have 
 very little conception of the extent and the power of the 
 native government. We have an indefinable impression 
 that the rajah is a sensuous, indolent, extravagant sybarite, 
 given to polo, diamonds and dancing girls, and amputates 
 the heads of his subjects at pleasure ; but that is very far 
 from the truth. Many of the princes in the list just 
 given, are men of high character, culture and integrity, 
 who exercise a wise, just and patriarchal authority over 
 their subjects. Seventeen of the rajputs (rashpootes, it 
 is pronounced) represent the purest and bluest Hindu 
 blood, for they are descended from Rama, the hero of 
 the Ramayama, the great Hindu poem, who is generally 
 worshiped as an incarnation of the god Bishnu ; and their 
 subjects are all their kinsmen, descended from the same 
 ancestors, members of the same family, and are treated 
 as such. Other rajahs have a relationship even more 
 clannish and close, and most of them are the descendants 
 of long lines of ancestors who have occupied the same 
 throne and exercised the same power over the same people 
 
I30 MODERN INDIA 
 
 from the beginninjir <^f history. None of the royal fam- 
 ihes of Europe can compare with them in length of pedi- 
 gree or the dimensions of their family trees, and while 
 there have been bad men as well as good men in the lists 
 of native rulers; while the people have been crushed by 
 tyranny, ruined by extravagance and tortured by the 
 cruelty of their masters, the rajahs of India have aver- 
 aged quite as high as the feudal lords of Germany or the 
 dukes and earls of England in ability and morality. 
 
 It has been the policy of Lord Curzon since he has been 
 Viceroy to extend the power and increase the responsibil- 
 ity of the native princes as much as possible, and to give 
 India the largest measure of home rule that circum- 
 stances and conditions will allow. Not long ago, at the 
 investiture of the Nawab of Bahawalpur, who had suc- 
 ceeded to the throne of his father, the Viceroy gave a 
 distinct definition of the relationship between the native 
 princes and the British crown. 
 
 "It is scarcely possible," he said, "to imagine circum- 
 stances more different than those of the Indian chiefs 
 now and wdiat they were at the time Queen Victoria came 
 to the throne. Now their sympathies have expanded with 
 their knowledge and their sense of responsibility ; with 
 the degree of confidence reposed in them. They recog- 
 nize their obligations to their own states and their duty 
 to the imperial throne. The British crown is no longer 
 an impersonal abstraction, but a concrete and inspiring 
 force. The political system of India is neither feudalism 
 nor federation. It is embodied in no constitution ; it does 
 not rest upon treaty, and it bears no resemblance to a 
 league. It represents a series of relationships that have 
 grown up between the crown and Indian princes under 
 widely different historical conditions, but which in pro- 
 
HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 131 
 
 cess of time have gradually conformed to a single type. 
 The sovereignty of the crown is everywhere unchal- 
 lenged. Conversely, the duties and the services of the 
 state are implicitly recognized, and, as a rule, faithfully 
 discharged. It is this happy blend of authority with free 
 will, of sentiment with self-interest, of duties with rights, 
 that distinguishes the Indian Empire under the British 
 crown from any other dominion of which we read in his- 
 tory. The princes have gained prestige instead of losing 
 it. Their rank is not diminished, and their privileges 
 have become more secure. They have to do more for the 
 protection they enjoy, but they also derive more from it ; 
 for they are no longer detached appendages of empire, 
 but its participators and instruments. They have ceased 
 to be architectural adornments of the imperial edifice, and 
 have become the pillars that help to sustain the main 
 roof." 
 
 At the same time Lord Curzon has kept a tight rein 
 upon the rajahs and maharajas lest they forget the au- 
 thority that stands behind them. He does not allow them 
 to spend the taxes of the people for jewels or waste it in 
 riotous living, and has the right to depose any of them 
 for crime, disloyalty, misgovernment or any other cause 
 he deems sufficient. The supreme authority of the Brit- 
 ish government has become a fact which no native state 
 or ruler would for a moment think of disputing or doubt- 
 ing. No native chief fails to understand that his conduct 
 is under scrutiny, and that if he committed a crime he 
 would be tried and punished by the courts as promptly 
 and as impartially as the humblest of his subjects. At 
 the same time they feel secure in their authority and in 
 the exercise of their religion, and when a native prince 
 has no direct heir he has the right to select his successor 
 
132 MODERN INDIA 
 
 by adoption. He may choose any child or young man 
 among his subjects and if the person selected is of sound 
 mind and respectable character, the choice is promptly 
 ratified by the central government. There is no interfer- 
 ence with the exercise of authority or the transaction of 
 business unless the welfare of the people plainly requires 
 it, and in such cases, the intervention has been swift and 
 sure. 
 
 During the five years that he has been Viceroy, Lord 
 Curzon has deposed two native rulers. One of them was 
 the Rajah of Bhartpur, a state well-known in the his- 
 tory of India by its long successful resistance of the Brit- 
 ish treaty. In 1900 the native prince, a man of intem- 
 perate habits and violent passions, beat to death one of his 
 personal servants who angered him by failing to obey 
 orders to his satisfaction. It was not the first oflfense, but 
 it was the most flagrant and the only one that was ever 
 brought officially to the attention of the government. 
 His behavior had been the subject of comment and the 
 cause of scandal for several years, and he had received 
 frequent warnings. Hence, when the brutal murder of 
 his servant was reported at the government house. Lord 
 Curzon immediately ordered his arrest and trial. He was 
 convicted, sentenced to imprisonment for life, deprived 
 of all his titles and authority, and his infant son was se- 
 lected as his successor. During the minority of the young 
 prince the government will be administered by native re- 
 gents under British supervision. 
 
 In 1 90 1 the uncle of the Maharaja of Panna died under 
 mysterious circumstances. An investigation ordered by 
 Lord Curzon developed unmistakable evidence that he 
 had been deliberately poisoned. The rajah was sus- 
 pended from power, was tried and convicted of the crime. 
 
HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 133 
 
 and in April, 1902, was deposed, deprived of all honors 
 and power and sentenced to imprisonment for life, while 
 one of his subordinates who had actually committed the 
 crime by his orders was condemned to death. 
 
 In January, 1903, the Maharaja of Indore, after testify- 
 ing to his loyalty to the British crown by attending the 
 durbar at Delhi, and after due notice to the viceroy, abdi- 
 cated power in favor of his son, a boy 12 years old. The 
 step was approved by Lord Curzon for reasons too many 
 and complicated to be repeated here. During the minor- 
 ity of the young man the government will be conducted 
 by native ministers under British supervision, and the 
 boy will be trained and educated with the greatest care. 
 
 In 1894 the Maharaja of Mysore died, leaving as his 
 heir an infant son, and it became necessary for the 
 viceroy to appoint a regent to govern the province during 
 his minority. The choice fell upon the boy's mother, a 
 woman of great ability and intelligence, who justified the 
 confidence reposed in her by administering the affairs of 
 the government with great intelligence and dignity. She 
 won the admiration of every person familiar with the 
 facts. She gave her son a careful English education 
 and a few months ago retired in his favor. 
 
 In several cases the privilege of adoption has been 
 exercised by the ruling chief, and thus far has been con- 
 firmed by the British authority in every case. 
 
 There are four colleges in India exclusively for the 
 education of native princes, which are necessary in that 
 country because of the laws of caste. It is considered al- 
 together better for a young prince to be sent to an Eng- 
 lish school and university, or to one of the continental 
 institutions, where he can learn something of the world 
 and come into direct association with young men of his 
 
134 MODERN INDIA 
 
 own age from other countries, but, in many cases, this is 
 impracticable, because the laws of caste will not permit 
 strict Hindus to leave India and forbid their association 
 with strangers. Even where no religious objections have 
 existed, the fear of a loss of social dignity by contamina- 
 tion with ordinary people has prevented many native 
 princes and nobles from sending their sons to ordinary 
 schools. Hence princes, chiefs and members of the noble 
 families in India have seldom been educated and until 
 recently this illiteracy was not considered a discredit, be- 
 cause it was so common. To furnish an opportunity for 
 the education of that class without meeting these objec- 
 tions. Lord ]\Iayo, while viceroy, founded a college at 
 Ajmer, which is called by his name. A similar institu- 
 tion was established at Lahore by Sir Charles Atchison, 
 Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab in 1885. The corner 
 stone was laid by the Duke of Connaught. A considera- 
 ble part of the funds were contributed by the Punjab 
 princes, and the balance necessary was supplied by the 
 imperiar government. Similar institutions have since 
 been founded at Indore and Rajkot, and in the four 
 schools about 300 of the future rulers of the native states 
 are now receiving a healthy, liberal, modern education. 
 The course of study has been regulated to meet peculiar 
 requirements. It is not desired to make great scholars 
 out of these young princes to fill their heads with use- 
 less learning, but to teach them knowledge that will be 
 of practical usefulness when they assume authority, and 
 to cultivate manly habits and pure tastes. Their phys- 
 ical development is carefully looked after. They play 
 football, cricket and other games that are common at the 
 English universities ; they have gymnasiums and prizes 
 for athletic excellence. They are taught English, French 
 
HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 135 
 
 and the oriental languages ; lower mathematics, geog- 
 raphy, history and the applied sciences, particularly 
 chemistry, electricity and engineering. 
 
 Lord Curzon has taken a deep interest in these institu- 
 tions. He usually attends the graduating exercises and 
 makes addresses to the students in presenting prizes or 
 diplomas ; and he gives them straight talks about the du- 
 ties and the privileges of young men of their positions and 
 responsibilities. He tells them that a rajah is worthless 
 unless he is a gentleman, and that power can never safe- 
 ly be intrusted to people of rank unless they are fitted to 
 exercise it. With a view of extending their training and 
 developing their characters he has recently organized 
 what is called the Imperial Cadet Corps, a bodyguard of 
 the Viceroy, which attends him upon occasions of state, 
 and is under his immediate command. He inspects the 
 cadets frequently and takes an active personal interest 
 in their discipline and education. The course of instruc- 
 tion lasts for three years, and is a modification of that 
 given the cadets at West Point. The boys are taught 
 military tactics, riding and the sciences. Very little at- 
 tention is paid to higher mathematics of other studies 
 except history, law and the modern languages. No one 
 is eligible for admission to this corps except members of 
 the families of the ruling native princes, and they must 
 be graduates of one of the four colleges I have men- 
 tioned, under 20 years of age. There is great eagerness 
 on the part of the young princess to join the dashing 
 troop of horsemen. Four of the privates are now actual 
 rulers of states with several millions of subjects and more 
 than thirty are future maharajas. The honorary com- 
 mander is the Maharaja Sir Pertas Singh, but the actual 
 commander is a British major. It is proposed to offer 
 
136 MODERN INDIA 
 
 commissions in the Indian army to the members of this 
 corps at the close of their period of training, but that 
 was not the chief purpose in Lord Curzon's mind when 
 he suggested the organization. He desired to offer the 
 most tempting inducement possible for the young princes 
 to attend college and qualify themselves for their life 
 work. 
 
 American visitors to India are often impressed with 
 the presence of the same problems of government there 
 that perplex our own people in the Philippines, and al- 
 though England has sent her ablest men and applied her 
 most mature wisdom to their solution, they are just as 
 troublesome and unsettled as they ever were, and we will 
 doubtless have a similar experience among our own co- 
 lonial or, as they are called, insular possessions. There 
 are striking coincidences. It makes one feel quite at 
 home to hear Lord Curzon accused of the same errors 
 and weaknesses that Judge Taft and Governor Wright 
 have been charged with ; and if those worthy gentlemen 
 could get together, they might embrace with sympathetic 
 fervor. One class of people in India declares that Lord 
 Curzon sacrifices everything of value to the welfare of the 
 natives ; another class insists that he has his foot upon the 
 neck of the poor Hindu and is grinding his brown face 
 into the dust. In both England and India are organiza- 
 tions of good people who have conceived it to be their 
 mission to defend and protect the natives from real or 
 imaginary wrongs they are suffering, while there are nu- 
 merous societies and associations whose business is to 
 see that the Englishman gets his rights in India also. 
 
 It may console Lord Curzon to know that the criti- 
 cisms of his policy and administration have been directed 
 at every viceroy and governor general of India since the 
 
'■ HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 137 
 
 time of Warren Hastings, and they will probably be re- 
 peated in the future as long as there are men of different 
 minds and dispositions and different ideas of what is 
 right and proper. 
 
 England has given India a good government. It has 
 accomplished wonders in the way of material improve- 
 ments and we can say the same of the administration in 
 the Philippine Islands, even for the short period of Amer- 
 ican occupation. Mistakes have been made in both 
 countries. President Roosevelt, Secretary Taft, Govern- 
 or General Wright and his associates would find great 
 profit in studying the experience of the British. The 
 same questions and the same difficulties that confront the 
 officials at Manila have occurred again and again in India 
 during the last 200 years, and particularly since 1858, 
 when the authority and rights of the East India Company 
 were transferred to the crown. And the most serious 
 of all those questions is how far the native shall be ad- 
 mitted to share the responsibilities of the government. 
 The situations are similar. 
 
 The population of India, like that of the Philippines, 
 consists of a vast mixed multitude in various stages of 
 civilization, in which not one man in fifty and not one 
 woman in 200 can read or write. 
 
 Ninety per cent of the people, and the same proportion 
 of the people of the Philippines, do not care a rap about 
 "representative government." They do not know any- 
 thing about it. They would not understand what the 
 words meant if they ever heard them spoken. The small 
 minority who do care are the "educated natives," who are 
 just as human as the rest of us, and equally anxious to 
 acquire money and power, wear a title, hold a govern- 
 ment office and draw a salary from the public funds. 
 
138 MODERN INDIA 
 
 There are many most estimable Hindu gentlemen who do 
 not come within this class, but I am speaking generally, 
 and every person of experience in India has expressed 
 the same opinion, when I say that a Hindu immediately 
 becomes a politician as soon as he is educated. It he does 
 not suceed in obtaining an office he becomes an opponent 
 of the government, and more or less of an agitator, ac- 
 cording to his ability and ambitions. 
 
 The universities of India turn out about five thousand 
 young men every year who have been stuffed with infor- 
 mation for the purpose pf passing the civil service exam- 
 inations, and most of them have only one aim in life, 
 which is to secure government employment. As the 
 supply of candidates is always much larger than the 
 demand, the greater number fail, and, in their disap- 
 pointment, finding no other profitable field for the 
 exercise of their talents, become demagogues, reformers 
 and critics of the administration. They inspire and main- 
 tain agitations for "home rule" and "representative gov- 
 ernment." They hold conventions, deliver lectures, write 
 for the newspapers, and denounce Lord Curzon and his 
 associates. If they were in the Philippine Islands they 
 would organize revolutions and paper governments from 
 places of concealment in the forests and mountains. They 
 classify their emotions and desire for office under the 
 name of patriotism, and some of them are undoubtedly 
 sincere. If they had a chance they would certainly give 
 their fellow countrymen the best government and the 
 highest degree of happiness within their power. They 
 call themselves "the people." But in no sense are they 
 representatives of the great masses of the inhabitants. 
 They have no influence with them and really care nothing 
 about them. If the English were to withdraw from India 
 
HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 139 
 
 to-day there would be perpetual revolution. If the Amer- 
 icans were to withdraw from Manila the result would be 
 the same. 
 
 It should be said, however, that, with all their humbug 
 about benevolence, the British have never had the pre- 
 sumption to assert that their occupation of India is ex- 
 clusively for the benefit of the natives. They are candid 
 enough to admit that their purpose is not entirely unself- 
 ish, and that, while they are promoting civilization and 
 uplifting a race, they expect that race to consume a large 
 quantity of British merchandise and pay good prices for 
 it. The sooner such an understanding is reached in the 
 Philippines the better. We are no more unselfish than 
 the British, and to keep up the pretext of pure benevo- 
 lence while we are in the Philippines for trade and profit 
 also, is folly and fraud. It is neither fair nor just to the 
 Filipinos nor to the people of the United States. At the 
 same time the British authorities in India have given 
 the natives a fair share of the offices and have elevated 
 them to positions of honor, influence and responsibility. 
 But they have discovered, as our people must also dis- 
 cover in the Philippines, that a civil service examination 
 does not disclose all the qualities needed by rulers of men. 
 The Hindu is very similar in character, disposition and 
 talent to the Filipino ; he has quick perceptions, is keen- 
 witted, cunning and apt at imitations. He learns with 
 remarkable ease and adapts himself to new conditions 
 with great facility, but no amount of those qualities can 
 make up for the manly courage, the sterling honesty, the 
 unflinching determination and tireless energy of the Brit- 
 ish character. The same is true in the Philippine Islands. 
 
 At the last census only 864 Englishmen held active 
 civil positions under the imperial government and 3,752 
 
I40 MODERN INDIA 
 
 natives. The number of natives employed in the public 
 service has been constantly increasing since 1879, while 
 the number of Englishmen has been gradually growing 
 less. No person other than a native of India can be ap- 
 pointed to certain positions under the government. Na- ' 
 tive officers manage almost all of the multifarious inter- 
 ests connected with the revenues, the lands, the civil 
 courts and local administration. The duties of the civil 
 courts throughout India, excepting the Court of Appeals, 
 are almost entirely performed by native judges, who 
 exercise jurisdiction in all cases affecting Europeans as 
 well as natives, and the salaries they receive are very 
 liberal. No country in the world pays "better salaries 
 than India to its judiciary. In Bengal a high court judge 
 whether English or native, receives $i6|eiot> a y^ar, and 
 the members of the lower courts are paid corresponding 
 amounts. 
 
 It is asserted by prominent and unprejudiced members 
 of the bar that nothing in the history of civilization has 
 been more remarkable than the improvement that has 
 taken place in the standard of morality among the higher 
 classes of Indian officials, particularly among the judi- 
 ciary. This is due in a great measure to the fact that 
 their salaries have been sufficient to remove them from 
 temptation, but a still greater influence has been the ex- 
 ample of the irreproachable integrity of the Englishmen 
 who have served with them and have created an atmos- 
 phere of honor and morality. 
 
 The English officials employed under the government 
 of India belong to what is known as "The Covenanted 
 Civil Service" the term "covenanted" having been inher- 
 ited from the East India Company, which required its 
 employes to enter into covenants stipulating that they 
 
HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 141 
 
 would serve a term of years under certain conditions, in- 
 cluding retirement upon half pay when aged, and pen- 
 sions for their families after their death. Until 1853 
 all appointments to the covenanted service were made by 
 nomination, but in that year they were thrown open to 
 public competition of all British subjects without distinc- 
 tion of race, including natives of India as well as of 
 England. The conditions are so exacting that few 
 native Hindus are willing to accept them, and of the 1,067 
 men whose names were on the active and retired lists 
 on the 31st of December, 1902, only forty were natives 
 of India. 
 
 Lord Macaulay framed the rules of the competition 
 and the scheme of examination, and his idea was to 
 attract the best and ablest young men in the empire. 
 Candidates who are successful are required to remain 
 one year on probation, with an allowance of $500, for the 
 purpose of preparing themselves for a second examina- 
 tion which is much more severe than the first. Having 
 passed the second examination, they become permanent 
 members of the civil service. They cannot be removed 
 without cause, and are promoted according to length of 
 service and advanced on their merits in a manner very 
 similar to that which prevails in our army and navy. 
 None but members of the covenanted service can become 
 heads of departments, commissioners of revenue, magis- 
 trates and collectors, and there is a long list of offices 
 which belong to them exclusively. Their service and 
 assignment to duty is largely governed by their special 
 qualifications and experience. They are encouraged to 
 improve themselves and qualify themselves for special 
 posts. A covenanted official who can speak the native 
 languages, who distinguishes himself in literature or in 
 
142 MODERN INDIA 
 
 oratory, who devises plans for public works, or distin- 
 guishes himself in other intellectual or official lines of ac- 
 tivity is sure to be recognized and receive rapid advance- 
 ment, while those who prefer to perform only the ar- 
 duous duties that are required of them will naturally re- 
 main in the background. There is, and there always will 
 be, more or less favoritism and partiality as long as hu- 
 man affections and personal regard influence official con- 
 duct, and I do not believe we would have it otherwise. 
 We can admire the stern sense of justice which sends 
 a son to the scaffold or denies a brother a favor that he 
 asks, but we do not like to have such men in our families. 
 There is undoubtedly more or less personal and political 
 influence exercised in the Indian service, but I doubt if 
 any other country is more free from those common and 
 natural faults. 
 
 In addition to the covenanted service are the imperial 
 service and the provincial service, which are recruited 
 chiefly from the natives, although both are open to any 
 subject of King Edward VII. All these positions are 
 secured by competitive examinations, and, as I have al- 
 ready intimated, the universities of India have arranged 
 their courses of study to prepare native candidates for 
 them. This has been criticised as a false and injurious 
 educational policy. The universities are called nurseries 
 for the unnatural propagation of candidates for the civil 
 service, and almost every young man who enters them 
 expects, or at least aspires, to a government position. 
 There is no complaint of the efficiency of the material 
 they furnish for the public offices. The exam- 
 inations are usually sufficient to disclose the 
 mental qualifications of the candidates and are 
 conducted with great care and scrupulousness, but 
 
HOW INDIA IS GOVERNED 143 
 
 they fail to discover the most essential qualifications for 
 official responsibility, and the greater number of native 
 appointees are contented to settle down at a government 
 desk and do as little work as possible. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA 
 
 The railways of India are many and long and useful, 
 but still very primitive in their appointments, having been 
 built for utility and convenience, and not for comfort. 
 The day will come, I suppose, when modern improve- 
 ments will be introduced, and the long journeys which 
 are necessary to reach any part of the vast empire will be 
 made as pleasant and luxurious as transcontinental trips 
 in the United States. Just now, however, the equipment 
 is on a military basis of simplicity and severity. Passen- 
 gers are furnished with what they need, and no more. 
 They are hauled from one place to another at reasonable 
 rates of speed ; they are given shelter from the sun and 
 the storms en route ; a place to sit in the daytime and to 
 lie down during the night; and at proper intervals the 
 trains stop for refreshments — not very good or very bad, 
 but "fair to middling," as the yankees say, in quality and 
 quantity. It a traveler wants anything more he must 
 provide it himself. People who live in India and are ac- 
 customed to these things are perfectly satisfied with 
 them, although the tourist who has just arrived is apt 
 to criticise and condemn for the first few days. 
 
 Every European resident of India who is accustomed 
 to traveling by train has an outfit always ready similar 
 to the kit of a soldier or a naval officer. It is as necessary 
 as a trunk or a bag, an overcoat or umbrella, and consists 
 
 144 
 
THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA 145 
 
 of a roll of bedding, with sheets, blankets and pillows, 
 protected by a canvas cover securely strapped and ar- 
 ranged so that when he wants to retire he need only 
 unbuckle the straps and unroll the blankets on the bunk 
 in the railway carriage. He also has a "tiffin basket," 
 with a tea pot, an alcohol lamp, a tea caddy, plates and 
 cups of granite ware, spoons, knives and forks, a box of 
 sugar, a tin of jam, a tin of biscuits or crackers, and other 
 concomitants for his interior department in case of an 
 emergency; and, never having had anything better, he 
 thinks the present arrangement good enough and won- 
 ders why Americans are dissatisfied. Persons of ordinary 
 common sense and patience can get used to almost any- 
 thing, and after a day of two travelers trained to the 
 luxury of Pullman sleepers and dining cars adjust them- 
 selves to the primitive facilities of India without loss 
 of sleep or temper, excepting always one condition : You 
 are never sure "where you are at," so to speak. You never 
 know what sort of accommodations you are going to 
 have. There is always an exasperating uncertainty as to 
 what will be left for you when the train reaches your 
 place of embarkation. 
 
 Sleeping berths, such as they are, go free with first 
 and second class tickets and every traveler is entitled to 
 one bunk, but passengers at intermediate points cannot 
 make definite arrangements until the train rolls in, no 
 matter whether it is noonday or 2 o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. You can go down and appeal to the station master 
 a day or two in advance and advise him of your wants 
 and wishes, and he will put your name down on a list. 
 If you are so fortunate as to be at the starting place of 
 the train he will assign you a bunk and slip a card with 
 your name written upon it into a little slot made for the 
 
146 MODERN INDIA 
 
 purpose ; the other bunks in the compartment will be 
 allotted to Tom, Dick and Harry in the same manner. 
 There are apartments reserved for ladies, too, but if you 
 and your wife or family want one to yourselves you must 
 be a major general, or a lieutenant governor, or a rajah, 
 or a lord high commissioner of something or other to at- 
 tain that desire. If they insist upon being exclusive, or- 
 dinary people are compelled to show as many tickets as 
 there are bunks in a compartment, and the first that come 
 have the pick, as is perfectly natural. The fellow who 
 enters the train later in the day must be satisfied with 
 ]\Ir. Hobson's choice, and take what is left, even if it 
 doesn't fit him. It the train is full, if every bunk is occu- 
 pied, another car is hitched on, and he gets a lower, but 
 this will not be done as long as a single upper is vacant. 
 And the passengers are packed away as closely as pos- 
 sible because the trains are heavy and the engines are 
 light, and the schedules must be kept in the running. 
 A growler will tell you that he never gets a lower berth, 
 that he is always crowded into a compartment that is 
 already three-fourths occupied with passengers who are 
 trying to sleep, but he forgets that they have more than 
 he to complain of, and if he is a malicious man he can 
 find deep consolation in the thought and make as great 
 a nuisance of himself as possible. I do not know how 
 the gentler sex behave under such circumstances, but I 
 have heard stories that I am too polite to repeat. 
 
 There is no means of ventilation in the ceiling, but 
 there is a frieze of blinds under it, along both sides of 
 the car, with slats that can be turned to let the air in di- 
 rectly upon the body of the occupant of the upper berth, 
 who is at liberty to elect whether he dies of pneumonia 
 or suffocation. The gentleman in the lower berth has 
 
THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA 147 
 
 a row of windows along his back, which never fit closely 
 but rattle like a snare drum, and have wide gaps that 
 admit a forced draught of air if the night is damp or 
 chilly. If it is hot the windows swell and stick so that 
 you cannot open them, and during the daytime they rattle 
 so loud that conversation is impossible unless the passen- 
 gers have throats of brass like the statues of Siva. In 
 India, during the winter season, there is a wide variation 
 in the temperature, sometimes as much as thirty or forty 
 degrees. At night you will need a couple of thick blan- 
 kets ; at noonday it is necessary to wear a pith helmet or 
 carry an umbrella to protect the head from the sun, and 
 as people do their traveling in the dry season chiefly, the 
 dust is dreadful. Everything in the car wears a soft gray 
 coating before the train has been in motion half an hour. 
 The bunks are too narrow for beds and too wide for 
 seats. The act of rolling over in the night is attended 
 with some danger and more anxiety, especially by the 
 occupants of the upper bertlis. In the daytime you can 
 sit on the edge like an embarrassed boy, with nothing to 
 support your spine, or you can curl up like a Buddha on 
 his lotus flower, with your legs under you ; but that is 
 not dignified, nor is it a comfortable posture for a fat 
 man. Slender girls can do it all right ; but it is impracti- 
 cable for ladies who have passed the thirty-third degree, 
 or have acquired embonpoint with their other graces. Or 
 you can shove back against the windows and let your feet 
 stick out straight toward the infinite. It isn't the fault of 
 a railway corporation or the master mechanic of a car 
 factory if they don't reach the floor. It is a defect for 
 which nature is responsible. President Lincoln once said 
 every man's legs ought to be long enough to reach the 
 ground. 
 
148 
 
 MODERN INDIA 
 
 The cars are divided into two, tliree, or four com- 
 partments for first-class passengers, with a narrow little 
 pen for their servants at the end which is absolutely nec- 
 essary, because nobody in India travels without an at- 
 tendant to wait upon him. His comfort as well as his 
 social position requires it, and few have the moral cour- 
 age to disregard the rule. To make it a little clearer I 
 will give you a diagram sketched by your special artist 
 on the spot. 
 
 \oaoU oooR 
 
 IWirioow 
 
 WINMW 
 
 OOOft 
 
 IwlMOaw TOILM Odob 
 
THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA 149 
 
 This is an excellent representation of a first-class rail- 
 way carriage in India without .meretricious embellish- 
 ments. 
 
 The second-class compartments, for which two-thirds of 
 the first-class rates are charged, have six narrow bunks in- 
 stead of four, the two extras being in the middle sup- 
 ported by iron rods fastened to the floor and the ceiling. 
 The woodwork of all cars, first, second, and third class, 
 is plain matched lumber, like our flooring, painted or 
 stained and varnished. The floor is bare, without carpet 
 or matting, and around on the v/all, wherever there is 
 room for them, enormous hooks are screwed on. Over 
 the doors are racks of netting. The bunks are plam 
 wooden benches, covered with leather cushions stuffed 
 with straw and packed as hard as tombstones by the 
 weight of previous passengers. The ceiling is of boards 
 pierced with a hole for a glass globe, which prevents the 
 oil dripping upon your bald spot from a feeble and de- 
 jected lamp. It is too dim to read by and scarcely bright 
 enough to enable you to distinguish the expression upon 
 the lineaments of your fellow passengers. A scoop net 
 of green cloth on a wire springs back over the light to 
 cover it when you want to sleep : Sometimes it works 
 and sometimes it doesn't. The toilet room is Spartan in 
 its simplicity, and the amount of water in the tanks de- 
 pends upon the conscientiousness of a naked heathen of 
 the lowest caste, who walks over the roofs of the cars 
 and is supposed to fill them from a pig skin suspended on 
 his back. You furnish your own towel and the most 
 untidy stranger in the compartment usually wants to 
 borrow it, having forgotten to bring one himself. You 
 acquire merit in heaven, as the Buddhists say, by loaning 
 
I50 MODERN INDIA 
 
 it to him, but it is a better plan to carry two towels, in or- 
 der to be prepared for such an emergency. 
 
 As we were about starting upon a tour that 
 required several thousand miles of railway travel and 
 several weeks of time, the brilliant idea of avoiding aU 
 risks and anxiety by securing a private car was 
 suggested, and negotiations were opened to that 
 purpose, but were not concluded because of nu- 
 merous considerations and contingencies which arose at 
 every interview with the railway officials. They are not 
 accustomed to such innovations and could not decide up- 
 on their own terms or ascertain, during the period before 
 departure, what the connecting lines would charge us. 
 There are private cars fitted up luxuriously for railway 
 managers and high officials of the government, but they 
 couldn't spare one of them for so long a time as we would 
 need it. Finally somebody suggested a car that was 
 fitted out for the Duke and Duchess of Connaught when 
 they came over to the durbar at Delhi. It had two 
 compartments, with a bathroom, a kitchen and servants' 
 quarters, but only three bunks. They kindly offered to 
 let us use it provided we purchased six first-class tickets, 
 and were too obtuse to comprehend why he objected to 
 paying six fares for a car that could not possibly admit 
 more than three people. But that was only the first of 
 several issues. At the next interview they decided to 
 charge us demurrage at the rate of i6 cents an hour for 
 all the time the car was not in motion, and, finally, at the 
 third interview, the traffic manager said it would be nec- 
 essary for us to buy six first-class tickets in order to get 
 the empty car back to Bombay, its starting point, at the 
 end of our journey. This brought the charges up to a 
 total as large as would be necessary to transport a circus 
 
THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA 151 
 
 or an opera company, and we decided to take our chances 
 in the regular way. 
 
 We bought some sheets and pillow cases, pillows and 
 old-fashioned comfortables and blankets, and bespoke a 
 compartment on the train leaving Bombay that night. 
 Two hours before the time for starting we sent Thagor- 
 ayas, our "bearer, down to make up the beds, which, be- 
 ing accustomed to that sort of business, he did in an ar- 
 tistic manner, and by allowing him to take command of 
 the expedition we succeeded in making the journey com- 
 fortably and with full satisfaction. The ladies of our 
 party were assigned to one compartment and the gentle- 
 men to another, where the latter had the company of an 
 engineer engaged upon the Bombay harbor improve- 
 ments, and a very intelligent and polite Englishman who 
 acts as "adviser" to a native prince in the administration 
 of an interior province. 
 
 On the same train and next to our compartment was 
 the private coach of the Gaikwar of Baroda, who was 
 attended by a dozen or more servants, and came to the 
 train escorted by a multitude of friends, who hung gar- 
 lands of marigold about his neck until his eyes and the 
 bridge of his nose were the only features visible. The 
 first-class passengers came down with car loads of trunks 
 and bags and bundles, which, to avoid the charge for ex- 
 tra luggage, they endeavored to stow away in their com- 
 partments. The third-class carriages were packed like 
 sardines with natives, and up to the limit allowed by law, 
 for, painted in big white letters, where every passenger 
 and every observer can read it, is a notice giving the 
 number of people that can be jammed into that particular 
 compartment in the summer and in the winter. We 
 found similar inscriptions on nearly all freight cars which 
 
152 MODERN INDIA 
 
 are used to transport natives during the fairs and fes- 
 tivals that occur frequently — allowing fifteen in summer 
 and twcnty-tiirce in winter in some of the cars, and in the 
 larger ones thirty-four in winter and twenty-six in sum- 
 mer, to avoid homicide by suffocation. 
 
 The Gaikwar of Baroda in his luxurious chariot did 
 not sleep any better than the innocent and humble mortals 
 that occupied our beds. We woke up in the morning at 
 Ahmcdabad, got a good breakfast at the station, and 
 went out to see the wonderful temples and palaces and 
 bazaars that are described in the next chapter. 
 
 There are now nearly 28,000 miles of railway lines in 
 India. On Jan. i, 1903, the exact mileage under opera- 
 tion was 26,563, with 1,190 miles under construction. 
 The latter was more than half completed during the year, 
 and before the close of 1905, unless something occurs to 
 prevent, the total will pass the thirty thousand mark. The 
 increase has been quite rapid during the last five years, 
 owing to the experience of the last famine, when it was 
 demonstrated that facilities for rapid transportation of 
 food supplies from one part of the country to another 
 were an absolute necessity. It is usually the case that 
 when the inhabitants of one province are dying of starv- 
 ation those of another are blessed with abundant crops, 
 and the most effective remedy for famine is the means 
 of distributing the food supply where it is needed. Be- 
 fore the great mutiny of 1857 there were few railroads 
 in India, and the lesson taught by that experience was of 
 incalculable valye. If re-enforcements could have been 
 sent by rail to the beleaguered garrisons, instead of mak- 
 ing the long marches, the massacres might have been pre- 
 vented and thousands of precious lives might have been 
 saved. In 1880 the system amounted to less than 10,000 
 
THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA 153 
 
 miles. In 1896 it had been doubled; in 1901 it had passed 
 the 25,000 mile mark, and now the existing lines are be- 
 ing extended, and branches and feeders are being built 
 for military as well as famine emergencies. All the prin- 
 cipal districts and cities are connected by rail. All of 
 the important strategical points and military cantonments 
 can be reached promptly, as necessity requires, and in 
 case of a rebellion troops could be poured into any par- 
 ticular point from the farthermost limits of India within 
 three or four days. 
 
 As I have already reminded you several times, India 
 is a very big country, and it requires many miles of rails 
 to furnish even necessary transportation facilities. The 
 time between Bombay and Calcutta is forty-five hours by 
 ordinary trains and thirty-eight hours by a fast train, 
 with limited passenger accommodation, which starts from 
 the docks of Bombay immediately after the arrival of 
 steamers with the European mails. From Madras, the 
 most important city of southern India, to Delhi, the most 
 important in the north, sixty-six hours of travel are re- 
 quired. From Peshawur, the extreme frontier post in the 
 north, which commands the Kyber Pass, leading into 
 Afganistan, to Tuticorin, the southern terminus of the 
 system, it is 3,400 miles by the regular railway route, 
 via Calcutta, and seven days and night will be necessary 
 to make the journey under ordinary circumstances. 
 Troops could be hurried through more rapidly. 
 
 Nearly all the railways of India have either been built 
 by the government or have been assisted with guarantees 
 of the payment of from 3 to 5 per cent dividends. The 
 government itself owns 19,126 miles and has guaranteed 
 3,866 miles, while 3,242 miles have been constructed by 
 the native states. Of the government lines 13,441 miles 
 
154 MODERN INDIA 
 
 have been leased to private companies for operation ; 
 5,125 miles are operated by the government itself. Near- 
 ly three-fourths of the lines owned by native states have 
 been leased for operation. 
 
 The total capital invested in railway property, to the 
 end of 1902, amounted to $1,025,000,000, and during that 
 year the average net earnings of the entire mileage 
 amounted to 5.10 per cent of that amount. The surplus 
 earnings, after the payment of all fixed charges and guar- 
 antees and interest upon bonds amounted to $4,233,080. 
 
 The number of passengers carried in 1902 was 197,- 
 749,567, an increase of 6,614,211 over the previous year. 
 The aggregate freight hauled was 44,142,672 tons, an 
 increase of 2,104,425 tons over previous year, which 
 shows a healthy condition. During the last ten years 
 the gross earnings of all the railways in India increased 
 at the rate of 41 per cent. 
 
 Of the gross earnings 59 per cent, were derived from 
 freight and the balance from passengers. 
 
 There is now no town of importance in India without 
 a telegraph station. The telephone is not much used, 
 but the telegraph lines, which belong to the government, 
 more than pay expenses. There has been an enormous 
 increase in the number of messages sent in the last few 
 years by natives, which indicates that they are learning 
 the value of modern improvements. 
 
 The government telegraph lines are run in connection 
 with the mails and in the smaller towns the postmasters 
 are telegraph operators also. In the large cities the 
 telegraph offices are situated in the branch postoffices and 
 served by the same men, so that it is difficult to divide 
 the cost of maintenance. According to the present sys- 
 tem the telegraph department maintains the lines, sup- 
 
THE RAILWAYS OF INDIA 155 
 
 plies all the telegraphic requirements of the offices and 
 pays one-half of the salaries of operators, who also at- 
 tend to duties connected with the postoffice. There 
 were 68,084 miles of wire and 15,686 offices on January 
 I, 1904. The rate of charges for ordinary telegrams is 
 33 cents for eight words, and 4 cents for each additional 
 word. Telegrams marked "urgent" are given the right 
 of way over all other business and are charged double 
 the ordinary rates. Telegrams marked "deferred" are 
 sent at the convenience of the operator, generally during 
 the night, at half of the ordinary rates. As a matter of 
 convenience telegrams may be paid for by sticking post- 
 age stamps upon the blanks. 
 
 There are 38,479 postoffices in India and in 1902 
 545,364,313 letters were handled, which was an increase 
 of 24,000,000 over the previous year and of 100,000,000 
 since 1896. The total revenues of the postoffice depart- 
 ment were $6,785,880, while the expenditures were 
 $6,111,070. 
 
IX 
 
 THE CITY OF AHMEDABAD 
 
 Ahmedabad, capital of the province of Jujarat, once 
 the greatest city of India, and formerly "as large as 
 London," is the first stopping place on the conventional 
 tour from Bombay through the northern part of the 
 empire, because it contains the most perfect and pure 
 specimens of Saracenic architecture ; and our experience 
 taught us that it is a place no traveler should miss. It 
 certainly ranks next to Agra and Delhi for the beauty 
 and extent of its architectural glories, and for other rea- 
 sons it is worth visiting. In the eleventh century it 
 was the center of the Eden of India, broad, fertile plains, 
 magnificent forests of sweet-scented trees, abounding in 
 population and prosperity. It has passed through two 
 long periods of greatness, two of decay and one of re- 
 vival. Under the rule of Sidh Rajah, "the ^Magnificent," 
 one of the noblest and greatest of the Moguls, it reached 
 the height of its wealth and power at the beginning of the 
 fifteenth century. He erected schools, palaces and tem- 
 ples, and surrounded them with glorious gardens. He 
 called to his side learned pundits and scholarly priests, 
 who taught philosophy and morals under his generous 
 patronage. He encouraged the arts and industries. His 
 wealth was unlimited, and, according to local tradition, 
 he lived in a style of magnificence that has never been 
 surpassed by any of the native princes since. His jewels 
 
 156 
 
THE CITY OF AHMEDABAD 157 
 
 were the wonder of the world, and one of the legends 
 says that he inherited them from the gods. But, unfor- 
 tunately, his successors were weak and worthless men, 
 and the glory of his kingdom passed gradually away 
 imtil, a century later, his debilitated and indolent sub- 
 jects were overcome and passed under the power of a 
 Moslem who, in the earlier part of the sixteenth century, 
 restored the importance of the province. 
 
 Ahmed Shah was his name. 
 
 He built a citadel of impregnable strength and impos- 
 ing architecture and surrounded it by a city with broad 
 streets and splendid buildings and called it after himself ; 
 for Ahmedabad means the City of Ahmed. Where his 
 predecessor attracted priests and scholars he brought 
 artists, clever craftsmen, skilled mechanics and artisans 
 in gold, silver, brass and clay ; weavers of costly fabrics 
 with genius to design and skill to execute. Architects 
 and engineers were sent for from all parts of the world, 
 and merchants came from every country to buy wares. 
 Thus Ahmedabad became a center of trade and manufac- 
 ture, with a population of a million inhabitants, and was 
 the richest and busiest city in the Mogul Empire. 
 Merchants who had come to buy in its markets spread its 
 reputation over the world and attracted valuable addi- 
 tions to its trades and professions. Travelers, scholars 
 and philosophers came to study the causes of its pros- 
 perity, and marvelous stories are told by them in letters 
 and books they wrote concerning its palaces, temples 
 and markets. An envoy from the Duke of Holstein gives 
 us a vivid account of the grandeur of the city and the 
 splendor of the court, and tells of a wedding, at which 
 the daughter of Ahmed Shah married the second son of 
 the grand mogul. She carried to Delhi as her dower 
 
158 MODERN INDIA 
 
 twenty elepliants, a thousand horses and six thousand 
 wagons loaded with the richest stuffs of whatever was 
 rare in the country. The household of the rajah, he says, 
 consisted of five hundred persons, and cost him five thou- 
 sand pounds a month to maintain, "not comprehending 
 the account of his stables, where he kept five hundred 
 horses and fifty elephants." When this traveler visited 
 the rajah he was sitting in a pavilion in his garden, clad 
 in a white vestment, according to the Indian code, over 
 which he had a cloak of gold "brocade," the ground color 
 being carnation lined with white satin, and above it was 
 a collar of sable, whereof the skins were sewed together 
 so that the tails hung over down his back. 
 
 Among the manufacturers and business men of Ahme- 
 dabad in those days, as now, were many Jains — the 
 Quakers of India — who belong to the rich middle class. 
 They believe in peace, and are so tender-hearted that they 
 will not even kill a mosquito or a flea. They are great 
 business men, however, notwithstanding their soft hearts, 
 and the most rapid money-makers in the empire. They 
 built many of the most beautiful temples in India, in 
 which they worship a kind and gentle god whose attri- 
 butes are amiability, benevolence and compassion. The 
 Jains of Ahmedabad still maintain a large "pinjrapol," 
 or asylum for diseased and aged animals, with about 800 
 inmates, decrepit beasts of all species, by which they ac- 
 quire merit with their god. And about the streets, and. 
 in the outskirts of the city, sitting on the tops of what look 
 like telegraph poles, are pigeon houses ; some of them 
 ornamented with carving, other painted in gay colors 
 and all of them very picturesque. These are rest houses 
 for birds, which the Jains have built, and every day basins 
 of food are placed in them for the benefit of the hungry. 
 
THE CITY OF AHMEDABAD 159 
 
 In the groves outside of the city are thousands of 
 monkeys, and they are much cleaner and more respectable 
 in appearance than any you ever saw in a circus or a zoo. 
 They are as large as Italian greyhounds, and of similar 
 color, with long hair and uncommonly long tails, and so 
 tame they will come up to strangers who know enough to 
 utter a call that they understand. Our coachman bought a 
 penny's worth of sweet bread in one of the groceries that 
 we passed, and Vi'hen we reached the first grove he 
 uttered a cry similar to that which New England dairy- 
 men use in calling their cattle. In an instant monkeys 
 began to drop from the limbs of trees that overhang the 
 roadway, and came scampering from the corners, where 
 they had probably been indulging in noonday naps. In 
 two minutes he was surrounded by thirty-eight monkeys, 
 which leaped and capered around like so many dogs as he 
 held the sugar cake up in the air before them. It was a 
 novel sight. These monkeys are fed regularly at the ex- 
 pense of the Jains, and none of God's creatures is too 
 insignificant or irritating to escape their comprehensive 
 benevolence. 
 
 One of the temples of the Jains, the Swamee Narayan, 
 as they call it, on the outskirts of the city, is considered 
 the noblest modern sacred building in all India. It is a 
 mass of elaborate carving, tessellated marble floors and 
 richly colored decorations, 150 feet long by 100 feet wide, 
 with an overhanging roof supported by eighty columns, 
 and no two of them are alike. They are masses of carv- 
 ing — figures of men and gods, saints and demons, ani- 
 mals, insects, fishes, trees and flowers, such as are only 
 seen in the delirium of fever, are portrayed with the most 
 exquisite taste and delicacy upon all of the surface ex- 
 posed. The courtyard is inclosed by a colonnade of 
 
irx) MODERN INDIA 
 
 beautifully carved columns, upon which open fifty shrines 
 with pagoda domes about twelve feet high, and in each of 
 them are figures of Tirthankars, or saints of the calendar 
 of the Jains. The temple is dedicated to Dharmamath, 
 a sort of Jain John the Baptist, whose image, crowned 
 with diamonds and other jewels, sits behind a beautiful 
 gilded screen. 
 
 Ahmedabad now has a population of about 130,000. 
 The ancient walls which inclose it are in excellent preser- 
 vation and surround an area of about two square miles. 
 There are twelve arched gateways with heavy teakwood 
 doors studded with long brass spikes as a defense against 
 elephants, which in olden times were taught to batter 
 down such obstructions with their heads. The commerce 
 of the city has declined of late years, but the people are 
 still famous for objects of taste and ornament, and, ac- 
 cording to the experts, their '"chopped" gold is "the finest 
 archaic jewelry in India," almost identical in shape and 
 design with the ornaments represented upon sculptured 
 images in Assyria. The goldsmiths make all kinds of 
 personal adornments ; necklaces, bracelets, anklets, toe, 
 finger, nose and ear rings, girdles and arm-bands of gold, 
 silver, copper and brass, and this jewelry is worn by the 
 women of India as the best of investments. They turn 
 their money into it instead of patronizing banks. As Mr. 
 Micawber would have expressed it, they convert their 
 assets into portable property. 
 
 The manufacture of gold and silver thread occupies the 
 attention of thousands of people, and hundreds more are 
 engaged in weaving this thread with silk into brocades 
 called "kincobs," worn by rich Hindus and sold by weight 
 instead of by measure. They are practically metallic 
 cloth. The warp, or the threads running one way, is all 
 
THE CITY OF AHMEDABAD i6i 
 
 either gold or silver, while the woof, or those running 
 the other, are of different colored silks, and the patterns 
 are fashioned with great taste and delicacy. These bro- 
 cades wear forever, but are very expensive. A coat such 
 as a rajah or a rich Hindu must wear upon an occasion 
 of ceremony is worth several thousand dollars. Indeed, 
 rajahs have had robes made at Ahmedabad for which the 
 cloth alone cost $5,000 a yard. The skill of the wire 
 drawers is amazing. So great is their delicacy of touch 
 that they can make a thousand yards of silver thread out 
 of a silver dollar ; and if you will give one of them a 
 sovereign, in a few moments he will reel off a spool of 
 gold wire as fine as No. 80 cotton, and he does it with the 
 simplest, most primitive of tools. 
 
 Nearly all the gold, silver and tin foil used in India is 
 made at Ahmedabad, also in a primitive way, for the 
 metal is spread between sheets of paper and beaten with 
 a heavy hammer. The town is famous for its pottery 
 also, and for many other manufactured goods. 
 
 The artisans are organized into guilds, like those of 
 Europe in ancient times, with rules and regulations as 
 strict as those of modern trades unions. The nagar-seth, 
 or Lord Mayor, of Ahmedabad, is the titular head of all 
 the guilds, and presides over a central council which has 
 jurisdiction of matters of common interest. But each of 
 the trades has its own organization and officers. Mem- 
 bership is hereditary ; for in India, as in all oriental 
 countries, it is customary for children to follow the trade 
 or profession of their father. If an outsider desires to 
 join one of the guilds he is compelled to comply with very 
 rigid regulations and pay a heavy fee. Some of the 
 guilds are rich, their property having been acquired by 
 fines, fees and legacies, and they loan money to their own 
 
i62 MODERN INDIA 
 
 members. A serious crisis confronts the guilds of Ahme- 
 (labad in the form of organized capital and labor-saving 
 machinery. Until a few years ago all of the manufactur- 
 ing was done in the households by hand work. Within 
 recent years five cotton factories, representing a capital 
 of more than $2,500,000, have been established, and 
 furnish labor for 3,000 men, women and children. This 
 innovation was not opposed by the guilds because its 
 products w^ould come into direct competition only with 
 the cotton goods of England, and would give employment 
 to many idle people ; but now that silk looms and other 
 machinery are proposed the guilds are becoming alarmed 
 and are asking where, the intrusions are likely to stop. 
 
 The tombs of Ahmed, and Ganj Bhash, his chaplain, 
 or spiritual adviser, a saintly mortal who admonished him 
 of his sins and kept his feet in the path that leads to 
 paradise, are both delightful, if such an adjective can 
 apply, and are covered with exquisite marble embroidery, 
 almost incredible in its perfection of detail. It is such 
 as modern sculptors have neither the audacity or the 
 imagination to design nor the skill or patience to execute. 
 But they are not well kept. The rozah, or courtyard, in 
 which the great king lies sleeping, surrounded by his 
 wives, his children and other members of his family and 
 his favorite ministers, is not cared for. It is dirty and 
 dilapidated. 
 
 This vision of frozen music, as some one has described 
 it, is a square building with a dome and walls of per- 
 forated fretwork in marble as delicate as Jack Frost ever 
 traced upon a window pane. It is inclosed by a crumbling 
 wall of mud, and can be reached only through a narrow 
 and dirty lane obstructed by piles of rubbish, and the 
 enjoyment of the visitor is sometimes destroyed and 
 
HUTHI SINGH'S TOMB — AHMEDABAD 
 
THE CITY OF AHMEDABAD 163 
 
 always seriously interfered with by the importunities of 
 priests, peddlers and beggars who pursue him for back- 
 sheesh. 
 
 The lane from the mausoleum leads into the courtyard 
 of the Jumma Musjid, a mosque erected by Ahmed Shah 
 at the height of his power and glory. It is considered 
 one of the most stately and satisfactory examples of 
 Saracenic architecture. 
 
 The most beautiful piece of carving, however, in this 
 great collection is a window in a deserted mosque called 
 Sidi Sayid. Perhaps you are familiar with it. It has 
 been photographed over and over again, and has been 
 copied in alabaster, marble, plaster and wax ; it has been 
 engraved, photographed and painted, and is used in text- 
 books on architecture as an illustration of the perfection 
 reached by the sculptors of India. The design is so com- 
 plicated that I cannot describe it, but the central features 
 are trees, with intertwining boughs, and the Hindu who 
 made it could use his chisel with as free and delicate a 
 hand as Raphael used his brush. Fergusson, who is 
 recognized as the highest authority on architecture, says 
 that it is "more like a work of nature than any other 
 architectural detail that has yet been designed, even by 
 the best masters of Greece or the middle ages." Yet the 
 mosque which this precious gem made famous is aban- 
 doned and deserted, and the courtyard is now a cow 
 pasture. 
 
X 
 
 JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA 
 
 A board of geographic names, similar to that we have 
 in Washington, is badly needed in India to straighten out 
 discrepancies in the nomenclature on the maps. I was 
 told that only three towns in all the vast empire have 
 a single spelling ; all the rest have several ; some have 
 many ; and the name of one town — I have forgotten 
 which — is given in sixty-five different ways. Jeypore, 
 for example, is given in fifteen. The sign over the en- 
 trance to the railway station reads "Jeypure ;" on the 
 lamps that light the platform it is painted "Jeypoor" ; 
 on the railway ticket it was "Jaypur" ; on the 
 bill of fare in the refreshment-room of the station it 
 was "Jaipor" ; on a telegram delivered by the operator at 
 the station it was spelled "J^ip^"'"'" If ^^e employes 
 about a single establishment in the town can get up that 
 number of spells, what are we to expect from the rest 
 of the inhabitants of a city of 150,000 people, and Jeypore 
 is one of the simplest and easiest names in the gazetteer. 
 The neighboring city of Jodpore, capital of the adjoining 
 native state of Marwar, offers an even greater variety of 
 orthoepy, for it appears in a different spelling on each 
 of the three maps I carried around — a railway map, a 
 government map, and the map in Murray's Guide Book. 
 This is a fair illustration of the dissensions over nomen- 
 clature, which are bewildering to a stranger, who never 
 
 164 
 
JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA 165 
 
 knows when he gets the right spelHng, and sometimes 
 cannot even find the towns he is looking for. 
 
 Jodpore is famous for its forts, which present an im- 
 posing appearance from a wide spreading plain, as they 
 are perched at the top of a rocky hill three hundred feet 
 high, with almost perpendicular sides. The only way 
 to reach it is by a zigzag road chiseled out of the cliff, 
 which leads to a massive gateway. The walls are twenty- 
 eight feet high, twenty-eight feet thick, and are crowned 
 with picturesque towers. During ascent you are shown 
 the impressions of the hands of the fifteen wives of one 
 of the rajahs who were all burned in one grand holocaust 
 upon his funeral pyre. I don't know why they did it, 
 but the marks are there. Within the walls are some very 
 interesting old palaces, built in the fifteenth century, of 
 pure Hindu architecture, and the carvings and perforated 
 marble work are of the most delicate and beautiful de- 
 signs. The treasury, which contains the family jewels 
 and plate, is the chief object of tourist curiosity, and they 
 are a collection worth going far to see. The pearls and 
 emeralds are especially fine, and are worth millions. The 
 saddles, bridles, harness and other stable equipments are 
 loaded with gold and silver ornaments set with precious 
 stones, and the trappings for elephants are covered with 
 the most gorgeous gold and silver embroidery. 
 
 About half a mile outside the city walls is a temple 
 called the Maha Mandir, whose roof is supported by a 
 hundred richly decorated columns. On each side of it 
 are palaces intended exclusively for the use of spirits of 
 former rulers of the country. Their beds are laid out 
 with embroidery coverings and lace, sheltered by golden 
 canopies and curtains of brocade, but are never slept 
 in by living people, being reserved for the spirits of the 
 
i66 MODERN INDIA 
 
 dead. This is the only exhibition of the kind to be seen 
 in India, and why the dead and gone rulers of Marwar 
 should need lodgings when those of the other Indian 
 states do not, is an unsolved mystery. 
 
 In the royal cemetery, three miles to the north, rows 
 of beautiful but neglected cenotaphs mark the spots where 
 the remains of each of some 300 rajahs were consumed 
 with their widows. Some of them had more and some 
 less, according to their taste and opportunities, and sutti, 
 or widow burning, was enforced in Jodpore more strictly 
 than anywhere else in India. You can imagine the 
 thoughts this extraordinary place suggests. Within its 
 walls, in obedience to an awful and relentless custom, not 
 less than nine hundred or a thousand innocent, helpless 
 women were burned alive, for these oriental potentates 
 certainly must have allowed themselves at least three 
 wives each. That would be a very moderate estimate. 
 I have no doubt that some of them had forty, and per- 
 haps four hundred, and we know that one had fifteen. 
 But no matter how many times a rajah went to the 
 matrimonial altar, every wife that outlived him was 
 burned upon his funeral pyre in order that he might 
 enjoy her society in the other world. Since widow burn- 
 ing was stopped by the British government in the sixties, 
 the spirits of the rajahs of Jodpore have since been com- 
 pelled to go to paradise without company. But they do 
 not take any chances of offending the deities by neglect, 
 for on a hill that overlooks their cemetery they have 
 erected a sort of sweepstakes temple to Three Hundred 
 Million Gods. 
 
 At the palace of the rajah of Ulwar, in a city of the 
 same name, sometimes spelled Alwar and in forty other 
 different ways, w^hich lies about thirty miles north of 
 
JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA 167 
 
 Jodpore, is another collection of jewels, ranked among 
 the finest in India. The treasure-house contains several 
 great chests of teakwood, handsomely carved and gilded, 
 bound with gold and silver bands, and filled with valuable 
 plate, arms, equipment, vessels and ornaments that have 
 accumulated in the family during several centuries, and 
 no matter how severe the plague or how many people are 
 dying of famine, these precious heirlooms have never been 
 disturbed. Perhaps the most valuable piece of the collec- 
 tion is a drinking cup, cut from a single emerald, as large 
 as those used for after dinner coffee. There is a ruby 
 said to be one of the largest in existence and worth 
 $750,000 ; a yellow diamond valued at $100,000 ; several 
 strings of almost priceless pearls and other jewels of 
 similar value. There are caskets of gold and ivory in 
 which hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of jewels 
 are imbedded, perfumery bottles of solid gold with the 
 surfaces entirely incrusted with pearls and diamonds, 
 and hung upon the walls around the apartment are shawls 
 that are worth a thousand times their weight in gold. 
 The saddles, harness and elephant trappings are much 
 more beautiful and costly than those at Jodpore, and in 
 the adjoining armory is a remarkable collection of 
 swords and other weapons with hilts of gold, jade, 
 enamel and jewels. A coat of mail worn by Bani Singh, 
 grandfather of the present rajah, is made of solid gold, 
 weighing sixteen and a half pounds, and is lavishly 
 decorated with diamonds. The library is rich in rare 
 oriental books and manuscripts wonderfully illuminated 
 in colors and gold. It has a large collection of editions 
 of the Koran in fifty or more different languages, and one 
 manuscript book called "The Gulistan" is claimed to be 
 the most valuable volume in India. The librarian in- 
 
i68 MODERN INDIA 
 
 sisted that it is worth 50o,cxx) rupees, which is equivalent 
 to about $170,000, and declared that the actual cost of 
 the gold used in illuminating it was more than $50,000. 
 It is a modern manuscript copy of a religious poem, made 
 in 1848 by a German scribe at the order of the Maharaja 
 Bani Singh. The miniatures and other pictures were 
 painted by a native artist at Delhi, and the ornamental 
 scroll work upon the margins of the pages and the initial 
 letters were done by a resident of Ulwar. 
 
 Nearly all of the capitals of the provinces of Rajputana 
 have similar treasures, the accumulations of centuries, 
 and it seems like criminal negligence to keep such enor- 
 mous sums of money tied up in jewels and useless orna- 
 ments when they might be expended or invested to the 
 great advantage of the people in public works and manu- 
 factories. Some of the towns need such industries very 
 badly because, off the farms, there is nothing in the way 
 of employment for either men or women, and every 
 branch of agriculture is overcrowded. One may moralize 
 about these conditions as long as he likes ; however, 
 changes occur very slowly in India, and as Kipling so 
 pertinently puts it in one of his poems, it's only a fool 
 "Who tries to hustle the East." 
 
 Jeypore is the best, the largest and most prosperous 
 of the twenty Rajput capitals, and is beyond comparison 
 the finest modern city in India. It is also the busiest. 
 Everybody seems to have plenty to do, and plenty to 
 spend. The streets are as crowded and as busy as those 
 of London or New York, with a bustling and stalwart 
 race of men and women, happy and contented, and show- 
 ing more energy than you often see in an oriental country. 
 The climate is cool, dry and healthful. The city stands 
 upon a sandy and arid plain, 1,600 feet above the sea, 
 
JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA 169 
 
 surrounded by stony hills and wide wastes of desert, but 
 even these natural disadvantages have contributed to its 
 wealth and industries, for the barren hills are filled with 
 deposits of fine clays, rare ores and cheap jewels like 
 garnets, carbuncles and agates, which have furnished the 
 people one of their most profitable trades. Out of this 
 material they make an enamel which is famous every- 
 where, and has been the source of great gain and fame. 
 It is shipped in large quantities to Europe, but the greater 
 part is sold in the markets of India. 
 
 Jeypore is surrounded by a wall twenty feet high and 
 nine feet thick, built within the last century, and hence 
 almost in perfect condition. Indeed the town, unlike 
 most of the Indian cities, is entirely without ruins, and 
 you have to ride five miles on the back of an elephant 
 in order to see one. The streets are wide and well paved, 
 and laid out at exact angles. Four great thoroughfares 
 III feet wide run at equal intervals at right angles with 
 each other. All the other streets are fifty-five feet wide 
 and the alleys are twenty-eight feet. Parks and public 
 squares are laid out with the same regularity, and the 
 houses are of uniform heights and generally after the 
 same pattern. The fagades are almost fantastic, being 
 covered profusely with stucco and "ginger-bread work," 
 so much that it is almost bewildering. The roofs are 
 guarded by highly ornamental balustrades that look like 
 perforated marble, but are only molded plaster ; the win- 
 dows are filled with similar material ; the doorways are 
 usually arched and protected with overhanging canopies, 
 and the doors are painted with pictures in brilliant colors. 
 The entire city has been "whitewashed" a bright rose 
 color, every house having almost the same tint, which 
 gives a peculiar appearance. There is nothing else like it 
 
ijo MODERN INDIA 
 
 in all the world. The outer walls of many of the houses 
 arc painted with pictures of animals and birds, trees, 
 pagodas and other fantastic designs, and scenes like those 
 on the drop curtains of theatres, which appear to have 
 been done by unskilled amateurs, and the whole effect — ^^ 
 the colors, the" gingerbread work and the tints — reminds 
 you of the frosted cakes and other table decorations you 
 sometimes see in confectioners' windows at Christmas 
 time. You wonder that the entire city does not melt and 
 run together under the heat of the burning sun. The peo- 
 ple wear colors even more brilliant than those of their 
 houses, and in whichever direction you look you see con- 
 tinual streams passing up and down each broad highway 
 like animated rainbows, broken here and there by trains 
 of loaded camels, huge elephants with fanciful canopies 
 on their backs and half-naked Hindus astride their heads, 
 guiding them. Jeypore was the first place we found 
 elephants used for business purposes, and they seemed 
 to be quite numerous — more numerous than horses — and 
 some of them were covered with elaborate trappings and 
 saddles, and had their heads painted in gay tints and 
 designs. That was a new idea also, which I had never 
 seen before, and I was told that it is peculiar to Jeypore. 
 The bullock carts, which furnish the only other means 
 of transportation, are also gayly painted. The designs 
 are sometimes rude and the execution bears evidence of 
 having been done with more zeal than skill. The artist 
 got the giddiest colors he could find, and laid them on 
 without regard to time or expense. The wheels, bodies 
 and tongues of the carts, and the canopies that cover 
 those in which women are carried, are nightmares of yel- 
 lows, greens, blues, reds and purples, like cheap wooden 
 
JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA 171 
 
 toys. Everything artificial at Jeypore is as bright and 
 gay as dyes and paint can make it. 
 
 A great deal of cloth is manufactured there, both cot- 
 ton and silk; most of it in little shops opening on the 
 sidewalk, and it is woven and dyed by hand where every- 
 body can see that the work is honestly done. As you 
 walk along the business part of town you will see women 
 and children holding long strips of red, green, orange, 
 purple or blue cloth — sometimes cotton and sometimes 
 silk, fresh from the vats of dye, out of the dust, in the 
 sunshine, until the colors are securely fastened in the 
 fibers. Even the men paint their whiskers in fantastic 
 colors. It is rather startling to come up against an old 
 gentleman with a long beard the color of an orange or a 
 spitzenberg apple. You imagine they are lunatics, but 
 they are only pious Mohammedans anxious to imitate the 
 Prophet, who, according to tradition, had red whiskers. 
 
 About half of the space of the four wide streets is 
 given up to sidewalk trading, and rows of booths, two or 
 three miles in length, occupy the curbstones, with all 
 kinds of goods ; everything that anybody could possibly 
 want, fruits, vegetables, groceries, provisions, boots and 
 shoes, ready-made clothing, hats and caps, cotton goods 
 and every article of wearing apparel you can think of, 
 household articles, furniture, drugs and medicines, jew- 
 elry, stationery, toys — everything is sold by these side- 
 walk merchants, who squat upon a piece of matting with 
 their stock neatly piled around them. 
 
 One feature of the street life in Jeypore, however, is 
 likely to make nervous people apprehensive. The 
 maharaja and other rich men keep panthers, leopards, 
 wildcats and' other savage beasts trained for tiger hunt- 
 ing and other sporting purposes, and allow their grooms 
 
172 MODERN INDIA 
 
 to lead them around through the crowded thoroughfares 
 just as though they were poodle dogs. It is true that 
 the brutes wear muzzles, but you do not like the casual 
 way they creep up behind you and sniff at the calves of 
 your legs. 
 
 Siwai Madhao Singh, Maharaja of Jeypore, is one of 
 the most interesting persons in India, and he represents 
 the one hundred and twenty-third of his family, which is 
 ants of the hero of a great Sanskrit epic called the 
 Ramayana, while the emperor of Japan represents only 
 the one hundred and twenty-third of his family, which is 
 reckoned the oldest of royal blood. The poem consists 
 of 24,000 stanzas, arranged in seven books, and describes 
 the adventures and sets forth the philosophy of Rama, the 
 seventh incarnation of Vishnu, one of the two greatest 
 of the gods. 
 
 Siwai Madhao Singh is proud of his ancestry, proud 
 of his ancient faith, proud of the traditions of his race, 
 and adheres with scrupulous conservatism to the customs 
 and the manners of his forefathers. At the same time 
 he is very progressive, and Jeypore, his capital, has the 
 best modern museum, the best hospital, the best college, 
 the best industrial and art school, and the largest school 
 for girls among all the native states of India, and is 
 more progressive than any other Indian city except Cal- 
 cutta and Bombay. The maharaja was selected to repre- 
 sent the native princes at the coronation of King Edward, 
 and at first declined to go because he could not leave 
 India for a foreign country without losing caste. When 
 the reasons for his selection had been explained to him, 
 and he was informed that his refusal must be construed 
 as an act of disrespect to his sovereign, he decided that 
 it was his duty to waive his religious scruples and other 
 
MAHARAJA OF JEVPORE AND HIS PRIME MINISTER 
 
JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA 173 
 
 objections and show his esteem and loyalty for the 
 Emperor of India. But he could not go without great 
 preparation. He undertook to protect himself as much 
 as possible from foreign influences and temptations, and 
 adhered as strictly as circumstances would allow to the 
 requirements of his caste and religion. He chartered a 
 ship to carry him from Bombay to London and back ; 
 loaded it with native food supplies sufficient to last him 
 and his party for six months, and a six months' supply 
 of water from the sacred Ganges for cooking and drink- 
 ing purposes. His preparations were as extensive and 
 complete as if he were going to etablish a colony on some 
 desert island. He was attended by about 150 persons, 
 including priests, who carried their gods, altars, incense, 
 gongs, records, theological works, and all the appurte- 
 nances required to set up a Hindu temple in London. He 
 had his own stewards, cooks and butchers — servants of 
 every kind — and, of course, a good supply of wives and 
 dancing girls. A temporary temple was set up on the 
 dock in Bombay before sailing, and Rama, his divine an- 
 cestor, was worshiped continuously for two weeks by the 
 maharaja's priests in order to secure his beneficent favor 
 on the voyage. When London was reached the entire 
 outfit was transferred to a palace allotted to his use, and 
 such an establishment as he maintained there was never 
 seen in the world's metropolis before. 
 
 Siwai Madhao Singh was received with distinguished 
 honors by the king, the court, the ministry, the statesmen 
 and the commercial and industrial interests of England. 
 He was one of the most conspicuous persons at the cor- 
 onation, and if he had been trained from childhood for 
 the part he could not have conducted himself with greater 
 grace and dignity. Everybody was delighted with him, 
 
174 MODERN INDIA 
 
 and he was dclij^htcd with his reception. He returned 
 to Jeypore filled with new ideas and inspired with new 
 ambitions to promote the welfare of his people, and al- 
 though he had previously shown remarkable capacity for 
 government he feels that his experience and the knowl- 
 edge he acquired during his journey were of inestimable 
 value to him. One of the results is a determination to 
 send his sons to England to be educated, because he feels 
 that it would be an injustice to them and to the people 
 over whom they must some time rule, to deprive them of 
 the advantages offered by English institutions and by 
 association with the people that he desires them to meet. 
 Caste is no longer an objection. The maharaja has 
 broken caste without suffering any disadvantage, and 
 has discovered that other considerations are more im- 
 portant. He has learned by actual personal experience 
 that the prejudices of his race and religion against travel 
 and association with foreigners has done an immeasur- 
 able amount of injustice. He has seen with his own eyes 
 how the great men of England live and prosper without 
 caste, and is willing to do like them. They do not believe 
 in it. They regard it as a narrow, unjust and incon- 
 venient restriction, and he is partially convinced that they 
 are right. The most distinctive feature of Hindu civili- 
 zation thus received a blow from which it can never 
 recover, because Siwai Madhao Singh is recognized as 
 one of the ablest, wisest and most sincere of all the Hindu 
 princes, and his influence in this and as in other things is 
 almost unlimited. He expects to go to England again. 
 He desires to visit other countries also, because he realizes 
 that he can learn much that is of value to him and to his 
 people by studying the methods and the affairs of foreign 
 nations. 
 
JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA 175 
 
 In November, 1902, when Lord Curzon visited Jeypore, 
 a banquet was given in his honor, at which the maharaja 
 made a remarkable speech, alluding to his experience in 
 England and the benefit he derived from that visit. In 
 reply Lord Curzon said : "When I persuaded Your 
 Highness to go to England as the chosen representative 
 of Rajputana at the coronation of the king, you felt some 
 hesitation as to the sharp separation from your home and 
 from the duties and the practices of your previous life. 
 But you have returned fortified with the conviction that 
 dignity and simplicity of character, and uprightness and 
 magnanimity of conduct are esteemed by the nobility and 
 the people of England not less than they are here. I hope 
 that Your Highness' example may be followed by those 
 who come after you, and that it may leave an enduring 
 mark in Indian history." 
 
 The palace and gardens of the maharaja cover one- 
 seventh of the entire area of the city of Jeypore, and are 
 inclosed within a mighty wall, which is entered through 
 several stately gates. The only portion of the palace 
 visible from the street is called the Hawal Mahal, or 
 "Hall of the Winds," which Sir Edwin Arnold's glowing 
 pen describes as "a vision of daring and dainty loveli- 
 ness, nine stories of rosy masonry, delicate overhanging 
 balconies and latticed windows, soaring tier after tier of 
 fanciful architecture, a very mountain of airy and auda- 
 cious beauty, through a thousand pierced screens and 
 gilded arches. Aladdin's magician could have called into 
 existence no more marvelous an abode, nor was the pearl 
 and silver palace of the Peri more delicately charming." 
 
 Those who have had the opportunity to compare Sir 
 Edwin Arnold's descriptions with the actual objects in 
 Japan, India and elsewhere are apt to give a liberal allow- 
 
176 MODERN INDIA 
 
 ance to his statements. He may be an accomplished poet, 
 but he cannot see straight. He looks at everything 
 through rose-colored magnifying glasses. The Hall of 
 the Winds is a picturesque and unique piece of Hindu 
 architecture. It looks like the frosting on a confectioners' 
 cake. But it is six instead of nine stories in height, is 
 made of the cheapest sort of stucco, and covered with 
 deep pink calcimine. It is the residence of the ladies of 
 the harem, or zenana, as that mysterious part of a house- 
 hold is called in India. 
 
 The palace of the maharaja is a noble building, but 
 very ornate, and is furnished with the most tawdry and 
 inappropriate French hangings and furniture. It is a 
 pity that His Highness did not allow his own taste to 
 prevail, and use nothing but native furniture and fabrics. 
 His garden is lovely, being laid out in the highest style 
 of Hindu landscape art. At the foot of the grounds is a 
 great marble building, open on all sides, with a pictur- 
 esque roof sustained by a multitude of columns, which 
 is the public or audience hall, where His Highness re- 
 ceives his subjects and conducts affairs of ceremony. 
 Behind it is a relic of some of his semi-barbarous an- 
 cestors in the form of a tank, in which a lot of loath- 
 some crocodiles are kept for the amusement of people 
 who like that sort of thing. They are looked after by a 
 venerable, half-naked old Hindu, who calls them up to 
 the terrace by uttering a peculiar cry, and, when they 
 poke their ugly noses out of the water and crawl up the 
 steps, teases them with dainty morsels he has obtained at 
 the nearest slaughter-house. It is not a soul-lifting 
 spectacle. 
 
 The stables are more interesting. The maharaja main- 
 tains the elephant stud of his ancestors, and has altogether 
 
JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA 177 
 
 about eighty monsters, which are used for heavy work 
 about the palace grounds and for travehng in the country. 
 In the stud are two enormous savage beasts, which fight 
 duels for the entertainment of the maharaja and his 
 guests. These duels take place in a paddock where 
 horses are exercised. His Highness has erected a Httle 
 kiosk, in which he can sit sheltered from the sun while 
 the sport goes on. He also has a lot of leopards, panthers 
 and cheetahs (Hindu wildcats), trained like dogs for 
 hunting purposes, and are said to be as useful and intelli- 
 gent as Gordon setters. He frequently takes a party of 
 friends into the jungle for tiger shooting, and uses these 
 tame beasts to scare up the game. 
 
 He is fond of horses and has 300 breeding mares and 
 stallions kept in long stables opening upon the paddock 
 in which they are trained. Each horse has a coolie to 
 look after it, for no coolie could possibly attend to more 
 than one. The man has nothing else to do. He sleeps 
 on the straw in the stall of the animal, and seldom leaves 
 it for a moment from the time he is assigned to the duty 
 until his services are no longer required. The maharaja 
 has spent a great deal of money and taken a great deal 
 of pains to improve the stock of his subjects, both horses 
 and cattle. He has an experimental farm for encourag- 
 ing agriculture and teaching the people, and a horticul- 
 tural garden of seventy acres, with a menagerie, in which 
 are a lot of beautiful tigers captured by his own men 
 upon his own estates within twelve miles of town. They 
 catch a good many tigers alive, and one of his amiable 
 habits is to present them to his friends and people whom 
 he desires to honor. 
 
 In the center of the horticultural garden stands one of 
 the noblest modern buildings in India, a museum which 
 
178 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the maharaja established several years ago for the per- 
 manent exhibition of the arts and industries of his people, 
 who are very highly skilled in metal and loom work of 
 all kinds, in sculpture, enameling, in making jewelry of 
 gold and silver, and varieties of glass work. At great 
 expense he has assembled samples of similar work from 
 other countries in order that his subjects may have the 
 benefit of comparing it with their own, and in connection 
 with the museum has established a school of art and in- 
 dustry. This at present has between five and six hun- 
 dred students receiving instruction in the arts and in- 
 dustries in which the people of Jeypore have always 
 excelled. The museum is called Albert Hall, in honor of 
 the King of England, and the park is christened in mem- 
 ory of the late Earl of Mayo, who, while Viceroy of 
 India, became an intimate friend and revered adviser of 
 the father of the maharaja. An up-to-date hospital with 
 a hundred beds is named ^Mayo Hospital. 
 
 The Maharaja's College is another institution which 
 has been established by this public-spirited and progres- 
 sive Hindu, who has done more for the education of his 
 people than any other native prince. There are now 
 about 1,000 students, with a faculty of eighty-two profes- 
 sors, including fifteen Englishmen and twelve Persians. 
 The college is affiliated with the University of Calcutta, 
 and has the best reputation of any institution of learning 
 among the native states. But even higher testimony to 
 the liberality and progressive spirit of this prince is a 
 school for the education of women. It is only of recent 
 years that the women in India were considered worth 
 educating, and even now only about half a million in this 
 vast country, with a female population of 150,000,000, 
 can read and write. But the upper classes are gradually 
 
JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA 179 
 
 beginning to realize the advantage of educating their 
 girls, and the Maharaja of Jeypore was one of the first 
 to establish a school for that purpose, which now has 
 between 700 and 800 girls under the instruction of 
 English and native teachers. 
 
 We had great fun at Jeypore, and saw many curious 
 and interesting things, for it is the liveliest and most at- 
 tractive place we found in India, with the greatest number 
 of novelties and distinctive local color. We went about 
 day after day like a lot of lunatics, kodaks in hand, taking 
 snap-shots at all the odd looking characters — and their 
 name is legion — that we saw in the strees, and it was an 
 unusual experience. Everybody hasn't an opportunity to 
 photograph a group of elephants in full regalia carrying 
 their owners' wives or daughters on shopping excur- 
 sions or to visit friends — of course we didn't know 
 which. And that is only one of the many unusual spec- 
 tacles that visitors to Jeypore may see in every direction 
 they choose to look. The gay raiment worn by the 
 women and the men, the fantastic designs painted upon 
 the walls of the houses and the bullock carts, are a never- 
 ending delight, for they are absolutely unique, and the 
 latter ought to be placed on pedestals in museums instead 
 of being driven about for ordinary transportation pur- 
 poses. The yokes of the oxen are carved with fanciful 
 designs ; everything is yellow or orange or red. Even 
 the camels are draped with long nettings and fringes and 
 tassels that reach from their humps to their heels. The 
 decorative idea seems to prevail over everything in Jey- 
 pore. Nothing is without an ornament, no matter how 
 humble its purpose or how cheap its material or mechan- 
 ism, its owner embellishes as much as money and imagina- 
 
i8o MODERN INDIA 
 
 tion will allow. Everylhing pays tribute to the esthetic 
 sense of the people. 
 
 The bullocks are lean animals of cream color, with long 
 legs, and trot over the road like horses, making four or 
 five miles an hour. Instead of carrying a bit in their 
 mouths, the reins are attached to a little piece of iron 
 that passes through a hole in the cartilage of the nose, 
 and the traces which draw the load spring from a collar 
 that resembles a yoke. Most of the hauling is done by 
 these animals. They are used for every purpose that 
 we use horses and mules. Cows are never yoked. They 
 are sacred. The religion of the Hindu prohibits him 
 from subjecting them to labor. They are used for milk- 
 ing and breeding, and are allowed to run at large. No- 
 body dare injure a cow or even treat it unkindly. It 
 would be as great a sin as kicking a congressman. A 
 learned pundit told me the other day how it happened 
 that cows became so highly esteemed in India. Of 
 course he did not pretend to have been on the spot, but 
 had formed a theory from reading, study and reflection, 
 and by that same method all valuable theories are pro- 
 duced. He said that once upon a time cattle became 
 scarce because of an epidemic which carried many of 
 them oflF, and in order to recover their numbers and pro- 
 tect them from slaughter by the people some raja per- 
 suaded the Brahmins to declare them sacred. Every- 
 thing that a Brahmin says goes in India, and the taboo 
 placed upon those cows was passed along until it ex- 
 tended over the entire empire and has never been re- 
 moved. I suppose we might apply the same theory to 
 the sacred bulls of Egypt. 
 
 We took our first elephant ride one morning to visit 
 Amber, the ancient but now deserted capital of the 
 
JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA i8i 
 
 province of Jeypore, where tens of millions of dollars 
 were wasted in the construction of splendid palaces and 
 mansions that are now abandoned, and standing open and 
 empty, most of them in good condition, to the enjoyment 
 of tourists only and an occasional party of pilgrims at- 
 tracted hither by sacred associations. The reason alleged 
 for abandoning the place was the lack of pure water. 
 
 The maharaja usually furnishes elephants for visitors 
 to his capital to ride around on. We are told that he 
 delights to do it because of his good heart and the number 
 of idle monsters in his stable who have to be exercised 
 daily, and might as well be toting tourists about the 
 country as wandering around with nobody on their backs. 
 But a certain amount of ceremony and delay is involved 
 in the transaction of borrowing an elephant from an 
 Indian prince, hence we preferred to hire one from Mr. 
 Zoroaster, who keeps a big shop full of beautiful brass 
 and enamel work, makes Indian rugs and all sorts of 
 things and exerts a hypnotic influence over American 
 millionaires. One American millionaire, who was over 
 there a few days ahead of us, evidently came very near 
 buying out Mr. Zoroaster, who shows his order book 
 with great pride, and a certain estimable American lady, 
 who owns a university on the Pacific slope, recently 
 bought enough samples of Indian art work from him to 
 fill the museum connected with that institution. Mr. 
 Zoroaster will show you the inventory of her purchases 
 and the prices she paid, and will tell you in fervent tones 
 what a good woman she is, and what remarkable taste 
 she has, and what rare judgment she shows in the selec- 
 tion of articles from his stock to illustrate the industrial 
 arts of India. He charged us fifteen rupees, which is 
 equivalent to five dollars in American money, more or 
 
i82 MODERN INDIA 
 
 less, according to tlie fluctuations of exchange, for an 
 elephant to carry us out to Amber, six miles and a half. 
 We have since been told that we should have paid but 
 ten rupees, and some persons assert that eight was plenty, 
 and various other insinuations have been made concern- 
 ing the way in which Mr. Zoroaster imposed upon inno- 
 cent American globe trotters, and there was plenty of 
 people who kept reminding us that we might have 
 obtained an elephant for nothing. But Zoroaster is all 
 right; his elephants are all right; the mahouts who 
 steer them are all right, and it is worth fifteen rupees to 
 ride to Amber on the back of a great, big clumsy beast, 
 although you don't realize it at the time. 
 
 Beginners usually do not like the sensation of elephant 
 riding. Young girls giggle, mature ladijes squeal, middle- 
 aged men grab hold of something firm and say nothing, 
 while impenitent sinners often express themselves in 
 terms that cannot properly be published. The acute 
 trouble takes place just after mounting the beast and just 
 before leaving the lofty perch occupied by passengers on 
 his back. A saddle is placed upon his upper deck, a sort 
 of saw-horse, and the lower legs stretch at an angle suffi- 
 ciently obtuse to encompass his breadth of beam. This 
 saw-horse is lashed to the hull with numerous straps and 
 ropes and on top of it are placed rugs and cushions. 
 Each saddle is built for four passengers, sitting dos-a-dos, 
 back to back, two on a side, and a little shelf hangs down 
 to support their feet. In order to diminish the climb the 
 elephant kneels down in the road. A naked heathen 
 brings a ladder, rests it against the side of the beast 
 and the passengers climb up and take their seats in the 
 saddle. Another naked heathen, who sits straddle the 
 animal's neck, looks around at the load, inquires if every- 
 
JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA 183 
 
 body is ready, jabs the elephant under the ear with a 
 sharpened iron prong and then the trouble begins. It 
 is a good deal like an earthquake. 
 
 An elephant gets up one leg at a time, and during the 
 process the passengers on the upper deck are describing 
 parabolas, isosceles triangles and parallelepipedons in the 
 circumambient atmosphere. There isn't much to hold on 
 to and that makes it the more exciting. Then, when 
 the animal finally gets under way, its movements are 
 similar to those of an earthquake or a vessel without bal- 
 last in a first-class Hatteras gale. The irregularity and 
 uncertainty of the motion excites apprehension, and as 
 the minutes pass by you become more and more firmly 
 convinced that something is wrong with the animal or the 
 saddle or the road, and the way the beast wiggles his 
 ears is very alarming. There is nobody around to answer 
 questions or to issue accident-insurance policies and the 
 naked heathen attendants talk no language that you know. 
 But after a while you get used to it, your body uncon- 
 sciously adjusts itself to the changes of position, and on 
 the return trip, you have a pretty good time. You be- 
 come so accustomed to the awkward and the irregular 
 movements that you really enjoy the novelty and are 
 perfectly willing to try it again. 
 
 But the most wonderful part of all is how the mahout 
 steers the elephant. It is one of the mysteries that for- 
 eigners can never understand. He carries a goad in 
 each hand — a rod of iron, about as big as a poker, with 
 an ornamental handle generally embossed with silver or 
 covered with enamel. One of the points curves around 
 like half a crescent; the other is straight and both are 
 sharpened to a keen point. When the mahout or driver 
 wants the elephant to do something, he jabs one of the 
 
i84 MODERN INDIA 
 
 goads into his hide — sometimes one and sometimes the 
 other, and at different places on the neck, under the ears, 
 and on top of tlic head, and somehow or another the 
 elephant understands what a jab in a particular place 
 means and obeys cheerfully like the great, good-natured 
 beast that he is. I have never been able to understand 
 the system. Elephant driving is an occult science. 
 
 The road to Amber passes through an interesting part 
 of the city of Jcypore and beyond the walls the broad 
 highway is crowded with carts loaded with vegetables 
 and other country produce coming into town and quite 
 as many loaded with merchandise going the other way. 
 Some of them are drawn by bullocks and some by camels ; 
 there are long caravans of camels with packs and paniers 
 upon their backs. As you meet hundreds of pedestrians 
 you will notice that the women all have baskets or pack- 
 ages upon their heads. The men never carry anything. 
 On either side of the broad highway are cultivated gar- 
 dens and gloomy looking houses and acres covered with 
 ruins and crumbling tombs. The city of Amber, which, 
 as I have already told you, was once the capital of the 
 province and the scene of great splendor, as well as fre- 
 quent strife, is now quite deserted. It once had 50,000 
 inhabitants, but now every house is vacant. Few of them 
 even have caretakers. The beautiful palace with its 
 marble coverings, mosaics and luxuriant gardens is occu- 
 pied only by a number of priests and fakirs, who are 
 supposed to spend their time in meditation upon heavenly 
 things, and in obedience to an ancient custom they sacri- 
 fice a sheep or a goat in one of the temples every morning. 
 Formerly human beings were slain daily upon this altar — 
 children, young girls, women and peasants, who either 
 offered themselves for the sake of securing advancement 
 
JEYPORE AND ITS MAHARAJA 185 
 
 in reincarnation or were seized by the savage priests in 
 the absence of volunteers. This was stopped by the 
 British a century ago, and since then the blood of rams 
 and goats has atoned for the sins of Jeypore. 
 
XI 
 
 ABOUT SNAKES AND TIGERS 
 
 A gentleman in Bombay told me that 50,000 people are 
 killed in India every year by snakes and tigers, and his 
 extraordinary statement was confirmed by several officials 
 and others to whom I applied for information. They 
 declared that only about one-half of the deaths from such 
 causes were ever reported ; that the government was 
 endeavoring to secure more complete and exact returns, 
 and was offering rewards for the destruction of reptiles 
 and wild animals. Under instructions from Lord Curzon 
 the authorities of the central government at Calcutta gave 
 me the returns for British India for the ten years from 
 1892 to 1902, showing a total of 26,461 human beings 
 and 88,019 cattle killed by snakes and wild animals dur- 
 ing the fiscal year 1901-2. This does not include the 
 mortality from these causes in the eighty-two native 
 states which have one-third of the area and one fourth 
 of the population of the empire. Nor does it include 
 thousands of cases in the more remote portions of the 
 country, which are never reported to the authorities. In 
 these remote sections, vast areas of mountains, jungles 
 and swamps, the danger from such causes is much 
 greater and deaths are more frequent than in the thickly 
 settled portions ; so that my friend's estimate was not far 
 out of the way. 
 
 The official statistics for British India only (the native 
 
 186 
 
ABOUT SNAKES AND TIGERS 187 
 
 states not included) for the ten years named are as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 KILLED BY WILD ANIMALS AND SNAKES. 
 
 Persons Cattle 
 
 1892 21,988 81,688 
 
 1893 24,016 90.253 
 
 1894 24,449 96,796 
 
 1895 25,190 100,107 
 
 1896 24,322 88,702 
 
 1897 25,242 84,187 
 
 1898 25,166 91,750 
 
 1899 27,585 98,687 
 
 1900 25,833 91,430 
 
 1901 26,461 88,019 
 
 Total ten years 250,252 907,619 
 
 Taking 1901 as a sample, I find that 1,171 persons were 
 killed by tigers and 29,333 cattle ; 635 persons and 37,473 
 cattle were killed by leopards ; 403 human beings and 
 5,048 cattle were killed by wolves; 1,442 human beings 
 and 9,123 cattle were killed by other wild animals, and 
 22,810 human beings and 5,002 cattle by snakes. This 
 is about the average record for the ten years, although 
 the number of persons killed by tigers in 190 1-2 was con- 
 siderably less than usual. 
 
 The largest sacrifice of life was in the Province of 
 Bengal, of which Calcutta is the capital, and where the 
 imperial authorities have immediate control of such 
 affairs. The government offers a bounty of $1 for every 
 snake skin, $5 for every tiger skin, and a corresponding 
 amount for other animals. During 1901-2, 14,301 wild 
 animals were reported killed and 96,953 persons received 
 
i88 MODERN INDIA 
 
 rewards. The number of snakes reported destroyed was 
 69,668 and 2,858 persons were rewarded. The total 
 amount of rewards paid was $33,270, which is much 
 below the average and the smallest amount reported for 
 many years. During the last ten years the amount of 
 rewards paid has averaged about $36,000 annually. The 
 falling off in 1901-2 is due to the discovery that certain 
 enterprising persons had gone into the business of breed- 
 ing snakes for the reward, and had been collecting con- 
 siderable sums from the government by that sort of 
 fraud. Hereafter no one will be able to collect claims 
 without showing satisfactory evidence that the snakes 
 were actually wild when killed or captured. It is hardly 
 necessary to say that no one has thus far been accused 
 of breeding tigers for the bounty, although large num- 
 bers of natives are engaged in the business of capturing 
 them for menageries and zoological gardens. 
 
 In the maharaja's park at Jeypore we saw a dozen 
 or more splendid man-eating tigers, which, the keeper 
 told us, had been captured recently only twelve miles 
 from that city. His Highness keeps a staff of tiger 
 hunters and catchers for amusement. He delights in 
 shooting big game, and several times a year goes into the 
 jungles with his native hunters and parties of friends 
 and seldom returns without several fine skins to add to 
 his collection. His tiger catchers remain in the woods all 
 the time, and he has a pleasant way of presenting the 
 animals they catch to friends in India, England and else- 
 where. While we were in Jeypore I read in a news- 
 paper that the Negus of Abyssinia had given Robert 
 Skinner two fine lions to take home to President Roose- 
 velt, and I am sure the maharaja of Jeypore would be 
 very glad to add a couple of man-eating tigers if he were 
 
ABOUT SNAKES AND TIGERS 189 
 
 aware of Colonel Roosevelt's love for the animal king- 
 dom. I intended to make a suggestion in that line to 
 him, but there were so many other things to talk about 
 that it slipped m.y mind. 
 
 The maharaja catches tigers in the orthodox way. He 
 has cages of iron and the toughest kind of wood set upon 
 wheels so that they can be hauled into the jungle by oxen. 
 When they reach a suitable place the oxen are unhitched, 
 the hunters conceal the wheels and other parts of the 
 wagon with boughs and palm leaves. A sheep or a goat 
 or some other animal is sacrificed and placed in the cage 
 for bait and the door is rigged so that it will remain 
 open in an inviting manner until the tiger enters and lifts 
 the carcass from the lever. The instant he disturbs the 
 bait heavy iron bars drop over the hole through which he 
 entered and he is a prisoner at the mercy of his captors. 
 Sometimes the scheme fails and the hunters lose their 
 time and trouble and bait, but being men of experience 
 in such affairs they generally know the proper place and 
 the proper season to look for game. When the watchers 
 notify them that the trap is occupied they come with 
 oxen and haul it to town, where it is backed up against 
 a permanent cage in the menagerie, the iron door is lifted, 
 and the tiger is punched with iron bars until he accepts 
 the quarters that have been provided for him, and be- 
 comes a prisoner for life. 
 
 It is a terrible thing when a hungry and ugly man- 
 eater comes into a village, for the inhabitants are gen- 
 erally defenseless. They have no guns, because the gov- 
 ernment does not allow the natives to carry arms, and 
 their only weapons are the implements of the farm. If 
 they would clear out and scatter the number of victims 
 would not be so large, but they usually keep together for 
 
I90 MODERN INDIA 
 
 mutual defense, and, as a consequence, the animal has 
 them at his mercy. A man-eater that has once tasted 
 human flesh is never satiated, and attacks one victim 
 after another until he has made away with an entire 
 village. 
 
 The danger from snakes and other poisonous reptiles 
 is much greater than from tigers and other wild beasts, 
 chiefly because snakes in India are sacred to the gods, 
 and the government finds it an exceedingly delicate mat- 
 ter to handle the situation as the circumstances require. 
 When a Hindu is bitten by a snake it is considered the 
 act of a god, and the victim is honored rather than pitied. 
 While his death is deplored, no doubt, he has been re- 
 moved from an humble earthly sphere to a much more 
 happy and honorable condition in the other world. 
 Therefore, while it is scarcely true that the Hindus like 
 to be killed by snake poison, they will do very little to 
 protect themselves or cure the bites. Nor do they like 
 to have the reptiles killed for fear of provoking the gods 
 that look after them. The snake gods are numbered 
 by hundreds of thousands, and shrines have been erected 
 to them in every village and on every highway. If a 
 pious Hindu peasant sees a snake he will seldom run from 
 it, but will remain quiet and offer a prayer, and if it bites 
 him and he dies, his heirs and relatives will erect a shrine 
 to his memory. The honor of having a shrine erected 
 to one's memory is highly appreciated. Hence death 
 from snake poison is by no means the worst fate a Hindu 
 can suffer. These facts indicate the difficulties the gov- 
 ernment ofificials meet in their endeavors to exterminate 
 reptiles. 
 
 Snake charmers are found in every village. They are 
 usually priests, monks or sorcerers, and may generally 
 
ABOUT SNAKES AND TIGERS 191 
 
 be seen in the neighborhood of Hindu temples and tombs. 
 They carry from two to twenty hideous reptiles of all 
 sizes in the folds of their robes, generally next to their 
 naked bosoms, and when they see a chance of making a 
 few coppers from a stranger they draw them out casually 
 and play with them as if they were pets. Usually the 
 fangs have been carefully extracted so that the snakes 
 are really harmless. At the same time they are not 
 agreeable companions. Sometimes snake charmers will 
 allow their pets to bite them, and, when the blood ap- 
 pears upon the surface of the skin, they place lozenges 
 of some black absorbent upon the wounds to suck up the 
 blood and afterward sell them at high prices for charms 
 and amulets. 
 
 When Mr, Henry Phipps of New York was in India 
 he became very much interested in this subject. His 
 sympathies were particularly excited by the number of 
 poor people who died from snake bites and from the bites 
 of wild animals, without medical attention. There is 
 only one small Pasteur institute in India, and it is geo- 
 graphically situated so that it cannot be reached without 
 several days' travel from those parts of the empire where 
 snakes are most numerous and the mortality from animals 
 is largest. With his usual modesty, without saying any- 
 thing to anybody, Mr. Phipps placed $100,000 in the 
 hands of Lord Curzon with a request that a hospital and 
 Pasteur institute be established in southern India at the 
 most accessible location that can be found for the treat- 
 ment of such cases, and a laboratory established for 
 original research to discover antidotes and remedies for 
 animal poisons. After thorough investigation it was 
 decided to locate the institute in the Province of Madras. 
 The local government provided a site and takes charge 
 
192 MODERN INDIA 
 
 of its maintenance, while the general government will pay 
 an annual subsidy corresponding to the value of the 
 services rendered to soldiers sent there for treatment. 
 
 While we were waiting at a railway station one morn- 
 ing a solemn-looking old man, who, from appearances, 
 might have been a contemporary of Mahomet, or the 
 nineteenth incarnation of a mighty god, squatted down 
 on the floor and gazed upon us with a broad and benevo- 
 lent smile. He touched his forehead respectfully and 
 bowed several times, and then, having attracted attention 
 and complied with the etiquette of his caste, drew from 
 his breast a spry little sparrow that had been nestling 
 between his cotton robe and his bare flesh. Stroking the 
 bird affectionately and talking to it in some mysterious 
 language, the old man looked up at us for approval and 
 placed it upon the pavement. It greeted us cordially with 
 several little chirps and hopped around over the stone to 
 get the kinks out of its legs, while the old fakir drew 
 from his breast a little package which he unfolded care- 
 fully and laid on the ground. It contained an assortment 
 of very fine beads of different colors and made of glass. 
 Taking a spool of thread from the folds of his robe, the 
 old man broke off a piece about two feet long and, calling 
 to the bird, began to whistle softly as his pet hopped over 
 toward him. There was evidently a perfect understand- 
 ing between them. The bird knew what was expected 
 and proceeded immediately to business. It grasped the 
 lower end of the thread in its little claws as its trainer 
 held it suspended in the air with the other end wound 
 around his forefinger, and swung back and forth, chir- 
 ruping cheerfully. After swinging a little while it 
 reached the top, and then stood proudly for a moment on 
 the fakir's finger and acknowledged our applause. Then 
 
ABOUT SNAKES AND TIGERS 193 
 
 it climbed down again like a sailor or a monkey and 
 dropped to the ground. I had never seen an exhibition 
 so simple and yet unusual, but something even better 
 was yet to come, for, in obedience to instruction, the little 
 chap picked up the tiny beads one after another with his 
 bill and strung them upon the thread, which it held with 
 its tiny toes. 
 
XII 
 
 THE RAJPUTS AND THEIR COUNTRY 
 
 In India, as everywhere else, the climate and physical 
 features of the country have exercised a sharp and last- 
 ing influence upon the race that lives therein. The 
 noblest characters, the brave, the strong, the enduring 
 and the progressive come from the north, where the air 
 is keen and encourages activity, while those who dwell in 
 the south have hereditary physical and moral lassitude. 
 The geographical names are typical of the people. They 
 all mean something and have a poetical and oftentimes a 
 political significance. "The Mountains of Strength" en- 
 compass a plateau called "The Abode of Princes," and 
 beyond and behind them stretches a desert called the 
 "Region of Death." This country is called the Rajput- 
 ana — pronounced Raashpootana — and is composed of the 
 most interesting of all the native states of India, twenty 
 in number, with an area of 150,000 square miles and a 
 population of more than 12,000,000. They are the only 
 part of the empire where ancient political institutions and 
 dynasties survive, and their preservation is due to the pro- 
 tection of the British authorities. Each prince is the 
 hereditary chief of a military clan, the members of which 
 are all descended from a common ancestor, and for cen- 
 turies have been the lords of the soil. Many of the fam- 
 ilies are Mohammedans, and they are famous for their 
 chivalry, their loyalty, their independence and love of the 
 
 194 
 
THE RAJPUTS AND THEIR COUNTRY 195 
 
 truth. These characteristics, I contend, are largely due 
 to the climate and the topography of the territory in 
 which they live. 
 
 Mount Abu, the sacred Olympus of western India, a 
 huge heap of granite rising 5,650 feet above the sea, is in 
 the center of Rajputana. It is called the "Pinnacle of the 
 Saints," and upon its summit may be found the highest 
 ideals of Indian ecclesiastical architecture in a group of 
 five marble temples erected by peace-loving and life-pro- 
 tecting Jains, the Quakers of the East. These temples 
 were built about a thousand years ago by three brothers, 
 pious merchant princes, Vimala Sah, Tejpala and Vastu- 
 pala. The material was carried more than 300 miles over 
 mountains and across plains — an undertaking worthy of 
 the ancient Egyptians. The columns and pillars, the cor- 
 nices, the beams that support the roofs, the arches of the 
 gateways, windows and doors, the sills and lintels, the 
 friezes and wainscoting, all of the purest and daintiest 
 marble, were chiseled by artists of a race whose creed 
 pronounces patience to be the highest virtue, whose pro- 
 genitor lived 8,000,000 years, and to whom a century is 
 but a day. The purpose of the prayers of these people is 
 to secure divine assistance in the suppression of all 
 worldly desires, to subdue selfishness, to lift the soul 
 above sordid thoughts and temptations. Therefore they 
 built their temples amid the most beautiful scenery they 
 could find. They made them cool and dark because of 
 the heat and glare of this climate, with wide porticoes, 
 overhanging eaves that shut out the sunshine and make 
 the interior one great refreshing shadow, tempting the 
 warm and weary to enter the cool twilight, for all the 
 light they have is filtered through screens made of great 
 
 
 
 I','* ^\ 
 
 
MiMtum, 
 
 196 MODERN INDIA 
 
 sheets of fine-grained marble, perforated with tracery 
 and foliage designs as delicate as Brussels lace. 
 
 In the center of this wonderful museum of sculpture, 
 surrounded by a forest of carved columns, which in the 
 minuteness and beauty of detail stand almost unrivaled- 
 even in this land of lavish labor and inexhaustible 
 patience, sits the image of Parswanatha, the god of 
 Peace and Plenty, a divinity that encourages love and 
 gentleness and truth, to whom these temples were dedi- 
 cated. He is seated upon an exquisite platform of ala- 
 baster, with legs crossed and arms folded, silent and im- 
 movable, engaged in the contemplation of the good and 
 beautiful, and his lips are wreathed in a smile that com- 
 prehends all human beings and will last throughout eter- 
 nity. Around this temple, as usual with the Jains, is a 
 cloister — a wide colonnade supported by a double row of 
 pillars. There are fifty-five cells opening upon it, but in- 
 stead of being occupied by monks or priests, in each of 
 them, upon a throne of lotus leaves, sits an exact min- 
 iature duplicate of the image of the sanre god, in the same 
 posture, with the same expression of serene and holy 
 calm. A number of young priests were moving about 
 placing fresh flowers before these idols, and in the temple 
 was a group of dusty, tired, hungry, half-naked and sore- 
 footed pilgrims, who had come a long way with packs on 
 their backs bearing their food and seeking no shelter but 
 the shade of temples or trees. Here at last they found 
 rest and relief and consolation, and it seems a beautiful 
 religion that requires nothing more from its devotees. 
 
 The forty-eight columns which sustain the dome of this 
 temple have been pronounced the most exquisite ex- 
 amples of carved marble in existence, and the highest 
 authority on Indian architecture declares that the dome 
 
 
THE RAJPUTS AND THEIR COUNTRY 197 
 
 "in richness of ornament and delicacy of detail is prob- 
 ably unsurpassed in the world." 
 
 Facing the entrance to the temple is a square building, 
 or portico, containing nine large white elephants, each 
 carved from a monolith of marble. Originally they all 
 had riders, intended to represent Vimala Sah, the Jain 
 merchant, and his family going in procession to worship, 
 but several of the figures have been broken entirely away 
 and others have been badly damaged. These five tem- 
 ples, with their courtyards and cloisters, are said to have 
 cost $90,000,000 and to have occupied fourteen years in 
 building, from 1032 to 1046 A. D. 
 
 Mount Abu is the headquarters of the Rajputana ad- 
 ministration, the hot weather station for the British 
 troops, and the favorite summer resort of the European 
 colonies of western India. The mountain is encircled with 
 well-made roads, winding among the forests, and pictur- 
 esque bridle paths. There are many handsome villas be- 
 longing to officials and private citizens, barracks, schools, 
 asylums, clubs and other modern structures. 
 
 In several of the larger cities of the province can be 
 found temples similar to those I have described ; some of 
 them of Saracenic architecture, equal to that of the Al- 
 hambra or the Persian palaces. The pure Hindu designs 
 differ from the Saracenic as widely as the Gothic from 
 the Romanesque, but often you find a mixture embracing 
 the strongest features of both. The rich and the strong 
 gave expression to their own sense of beauty and taste 
 when by the erection of these temples they sought to 
 honor and glorify the gods to whom they pray. 
 
 Ajmere, the winter capital of the governor general of 
 Rajputana, is one of the oldest and most beautiful cities 
 of western India, having been founded only a hundred 
 
198 MODERN INDIA 
 
 years after the beginning of the Christian era, and occu- 
 pying a picturesque position in an amphitheater made by 
 the mountains, 3,000 feet above the sea. It is protected 
 by a stone wall, with five gtiteways ; many of the resi- 
 dences and most of the buildings are of stone, with orna- 
 mental facades, and some of them are of great antiquity. 
 In the olden days it was the fashion to build houses to 
 last forever. Ajmere has a population of about 70,000. 
 It is surrounded by a fertile country, occupied by an in- 
 dustrious, wealthy, and prosperous people. The city is 
 commanded by a fortress that crowns a noble hill called 
 "The Home of the Stars," possesses a mosque that is one 
 of the most successful combinations of Hindu and Sar- 
 acenic architecture of which I have spoken, the concep- 
 tion of some unknown genius, combining the Mohamme- 
 dan ideas of grandeur with Hindu delicacy of taste and 
 prodigality of detail. In its decorations may be found 
 some of the most superb marble embroidery that the im- 
 agination can conceive of. One of the highest authorities 
 dates its erection as far back as the second century before 
 Christ, but it is certainly of a much later date. Some 
 architects contend that it belongs to the fourteenth cen- 
 tury ; it is however, considered the finest specimen of early 
 Mohammedan architecture in existence. The mosque can 
 be compared to a grand salon, open to the air at one side, 
 the ceiling, fifty feet high, supported by four rows of col- 
 umns, eighteen in each row, which are unique in design, 
 and no two of them are alike. The designs are complex 
 and entirely novel, and each is the work of a dififerent 
 artist, who was allowed entire liberty of design and 
 execution, and endeavored to surpass his rivals. 
 
 There are several other mosques and temples of great 
 beauty in Ajmere, and some of them are sacred places 
 
THE RAJPUTS AND THEIR COUNTRY 199 
 
 that attract multitudes of pilgrims, who are fed daily by 
 the benevolence of rich contributors. Enormous rice 
 puddings are cooked in eight enormous earthen caldrons, 
 holding several bushels each, which are ready at noon 
 every day. The composition contains rice, butter, sugar, 
 almonds, raisins and spices, and to fill all of the eight pots 
 costs about $70. The moment the pudding is cooked a 
 bell is rung, and the pilgrims are allowed to help them- 
 selves in a grab-game which was never surpassed. 
 Greedy creatures scald themselves in the pudding so 
 badly that they sometimes carry the marks for life. It is 
 counted a miracle caused by the intercession of the saints 
 that no lives have ever been lost in these scrambles, al- 
 though nearly every day some pilgrim is so badly burned 
 that he has to be taken to a hospital. The custom is an- 
 cient, although I was not able to ascertain its origin or 
 the reason why the priests do not allow the pudding to 
 cool below the danger point before serving it. 
 
 Ajmere is the headquarters of one of the greatest rail- 
 ways in India, with extensive shops, employing several 
 thousand natives and Europeans. The chief machinists, 
 master mechanics and engineers are almost exclusively 
 Scotchmen. 
 
 In this province may be found an excellent illustration 
 of the effect of the policy of the British government to- 
 ward the native princes. It had good material to work 
 with, because the twenty independent Rajput princes 
 are a fine set of men, all of whom trace their descent 
 to the sun or the moon or to one of the planets, and 
 whose ancestors have ruled for ages. Each family 
 has a genealogical tree, with roots firmly implanted in 
 mythology, and from the day when the ears of their in- 
 fants begin to distinguish the difference in sounds, and 
 
200 MODERN INDIA 
 
 their tongues begin to frame thoughts in words, every 
 Rajput prince is taught the tables of his descent, which 
 read hke those in the Old Testament, and the names of 
 his ilhistrious ancestors. Attached to each noble house- 
 hold is a chronicler or bard, whose business is to keep the 
 family record straight, and to chant the epics that relate 
 the achievements of the clan. As I have said, all the Raj- 
 put families are related and belong to the same caste, 
 which has prevented them from diluting their blood by 
 marriage with inferior families. It is his blood, and not 
 the amount of his wealth or the extent of his lands, that 
 ennobles a Rajput. Many of the noblest families are very 
 poor, but the poorest retains the knowledge and the pride 
 of his ancestors, which are often his only inheritance. 
 
 These characteristics and other social and religious 
 customs make Rajputana one of the most romantic and 
 fascinating spots in India, and perhaps there is no more 
 interesting place to study the social, political and econom- 
 ical development of a people who once held that 
 only two professions could be followed by a gentle- 
 man — war and government. But their ancient tra- 
 ditions have been thoroughly revised and modified to 
 meet modern ideas. They have advanced in pros- 
 perity and civilization more rapidly than any other 
 of the native states. Infanticide of girl babies was for- 
 merly considered lawful and generally practiced among 
 them, and widows were always burned alive upon the 
 funeral pyres of their husbands, but now the Rajput 
 princes are building hospitals and asylums for women 
 instead, bringing women doctors from Europe to look 
 after the wives and daughters in their harems, and are 
 founding schools for the education of girls. 
 
 About three miles from the center of Ajmere is Mayo 
 
THE RAJPUTS AND THEIR COUNTRY 201 
 
 College, for the exclusive education of Rajput princes, 
 and erected by them. The center building, of white mar- 
 ble, is surrounded by villas and cottages erected for the 
 accommodation of the members of the princely families 
 who are sent there. The villas are all of pure Hindu 
 architecture, and there has been considerable rivalry 
 among the different families to see which should house 
 its cadets in the most elegant and convenient style. 
 Hence, nowhere else in India can be found so many fine 
 examples of modern native residence architecture. The 
 young princes live in great style, each having a little 
 court around him and a number of servants to gratify his 
 wants. It is quite the usual arrangement for a college 
 student to live in a palatial villa, with secretaries, aides- 
 de-camp, equerries and bodyguards, for Indian princes 
 are very particular in such matters, and from the hour of 
 birth their sons are surrounded with as much ceremony 
 as the King of Spain. They would not be permitted to 
 attend the college if they could not continue to live in 
 regal state. Some of them, only 10 or 12 years old, have 
 establishments as large and grand as those of half the 
 kings of Europe, and the Princes Imperial of England or 
 of Germany live the life of a peasant in comparison. 
 
XIII 
 
 THE ANCIENT MOGUL EMPIRE 
 
 The ancient Mogul Empire embraced almost as much 
 of India as is controlled by the British today, and ex- 
 tended westward into Europe as far as Moscow and 
 Constantinople. It was founded by a young warrior 
 known as Timour the Tartar, or Tamerlane, as he is 
 more frequently called in historical works. He was a 
 native of Kesh, a small town fifty miles south of Samar- 
 kand, the capital of Bokhara, which was known as Tar- 
 tary in those days. This young man conquered more 
 nations, ruled over a wider territory and a larger number 
 of people submitted to his authority than to any other 
 man who ever lived, before or since. His expansion 
 policy was more successful than that of Alexander the 
 Great or Julius Caesar or Charles V. or Napoleon, and 
 he may properly be estimated as one of the greatest if not 
 the very greatest and most successful soldier in all his- 
 tory. Yet he was not born to a throne. He was a self- 
 made man. His father was a modest merchant, without 
 wealth or fame. His grandfather was a scholar of repute 
 and conspicuous as the first convert to Mohammedanism 
 in the country in which he lived. Timour went into the 
 army when he was a mere boy. There were great doings 
 in those days, and he took an active part in them. From 
 the start he seems to have been cast for a prominent role 
 in the military dramas and tragedies being enacted upon 
 
 202 
 
THE ANCIENT MOGUL EMPIRE 203 
 
 the world's wide stage. He inherited a love of learning 
 from his grandfather and a love of war as well as mili- 
 tary genius from some savage ancestor. He rose rapidly. 
 Other men acknowledged his superiority, and before he 
 was 30 years old he found himself upon a throne and ac- 
 knowledged to be the greatest soldier of his time. He 
 came into India in 1398 and set up one of his sons on a 
 throne at Delhi, where his descendants ruled until the 
 great Indian mutiny of 1857 — ^460 years. He died of 
 fever and ague in 1405, and was buried at Samarkand, 
 where a splendid shrine erected over his tomb is visited 
 annually by tens of thousands of pilgrims, who worship 
 him as divine. 
 
 Babar, sixth in descent from Timour, consolidated the 
 states of India under a central government. His mem- 
 oirs make one of the most fascinating books ever written. 
 He lived a stirring and a strenuous life, and the world 
 bowed down before him. His death was strangely 
 pathetic, and illustrates the faith and the superstition of 
 men mighty in material affairs but impotent before gods 
 of their own creation. His son and the heir to his throne, 
 Humayon, being mortally ill of fever, was given up to 
 die by the doctors, whereupon the affectionate father 
 went to the nearest temple and offered what he called his 
 own worthless soul as a substitute for his son. The gods 
 accepted the sacrifice. The dying prince began to re- 
 cover and the old man sank slowly into his grave. 
 
 The empire increased in wealth, glory and power, and 
 among the Mogul dynasty were several of the most ex- 
 traordinary men that have ever influenced the destinies 
 of nations. Yet it seems strange that from the beginning 
 each successive emperor should be allowed to obtain the 
 throne by treachery, by the wholesale slaughter of his 
 
204 
 
 MODERN INDIA 
 
 kindred and almost always by those most shameful of 
 sins — parricide and ingratitude to the authors of their 
 being. Rebellious children have always been the curse 
 of oriental countries, and when we read the histories of 
 the Mogul dynasty and the Ottoman Empire and of the 
 tragedies that have occurred under the shadows of the 
 thrones of China, India and other eastern countries, we 
 cannot but sympathize with the feelings of King Thebaw 
 of Burma, who immediately after his coronation ordered 
 the assassination of every relative he had in the world 
 and succeeded in "removing" seventy-eight causes of 
 anxiety. 
 
 Babar, the "Lion," as they called him, was buried at 
 Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and was succeeded by 
 Humayon, the son for whom he gave his life. The latter, 
 on Sunday. Dec. 14, 1517, the day that Martin Luther de- 
 livered his great speech against the pope and caused the 
 new word "Protestant" — one who protests — to be coined, 
 drove Sikandar, the last of the Afghan dynasty, from 
 India. When they found the body of that strenuous 
 person upon the battle field, the historians say, "five or 
 six thousand of the enemy were lying dead in heaps with- 
 in a small space around him ;" as if he had killed them 
 all. The wives and slaves of Sikandar were captured. 
 Humayon behaved generously to them, considering the 
 fashion of those times, but took the liberty to detain their 
 luggage, which included their jewels and other negotiable 
 assets. In one of their jewel boxes was found a diamond 
 which Sikandar had acquired from the sultan Alaeddin, 
 one of his ancestors, and local historians, writing of it 
 at the time, declared that "it is so valuable that a judge 
 of diamonds valued it at half the daily expenses of the 
 entire world." This was the first public appearance in 
 
THE ANCIENT MOGUL EMPIRE 205 
 
 good society of the famous Kohinoor, which, as every- 
 body knows, is now the chief ornament in the crown of 
 Edward VIL, King of Great Britain and Ireland and 
 Emperor of India. It is vahied at £880,000, or $4,400,000 
 in our money. Queen Victoria never wore it. She had 
 it taken from the crown and replaced by a paste substi- 
 tute. This jewel thus became one of the heirlooms of the 
 Moguls, who lived in such splendor as has never been 
 seen since or elsewhere and could not be duplicated in 
 modern times. 
 
 In the winter of 1555 Humayon was descending a 
 stairway when his foot slipped and he fell headlong to 
 the bottom. He was carried into his palace and died a 
 few days later, being succeeded by his son, a boy of 13, 
 who in many respects was the noblest of the Moguls, and 
 is called in history Akbar the Great. He came to the 
 throne in 1556, and his reign, which lasted until 1605, 
 was almost contemporaneous with that of Queen Eliza- 
 beth. In reading his history one is impressed by the 
 striking resemblance between him and the present Em- 
 peror of Germany. Beiram, who had been his father's 
 prime minister, and whose clear intellect, iron will and 
 masterful abiUty had elevated the house of Tamerlane to 
 the glory and power it then enjoyed, remained with the 
 young king as his adviser, and, owing to the circum- 
 stances, did not treat him with as much deference and 
 respect as Akbar's lofty notions considered proper. The 
 boy endured the slights for four years, and when he 
 reached the age of 17 there occurred at the court of the 
 Moguls an incident which was repeated several centuries 
 later at Berlin, but it turned out differently. 
 
 Beiram, like Bismarck, submitted to the will of his 
 young master, surrendered all insignia of authority, and 
 
2o6 MODERN INDIA 
 
 started on a pilgrimage to Mecca, but before he left India 
 his chagrin and indignation got the better of his judgment 
 and he inspired an insurrection against the throne. He 
 was arrested and brought back to Delhi, where, to his 
 surprise, he was received with the greatest ceremony and 
 honor. According to the custom of the time, nobles of 
 the highest rank clothed him with garments from the 
 king's wardrobe, and when he entered the royal presence 
 Akbar arose, took him by the hand and led the astonished 
 old man to a seat beside the imperial throne. Beiram, 
 realizing the magnanimity of his boyish master, fell upon 
 his knees, kissed the feet of the king, and between sobs 
 begged for pardon. The king conferred the greatest pos- 
 sible honors upon him, but gave him no responsibility, 
 and Beiram's proud and sensitive soul found relief in 
 resuming his pilgrimage to Mecca. But he never reached 
 that holy place. He died on the way by the hand of an 
 Afghan noble, whose father, years before, he had killed 
 in battle. 
 
 You must remember Akbar, because so many of the 
 glories of Indian architecture, which culminate at Agra 
 and Delhi, are due to his refined taste and appreciation 
 for the beautiful, and I shall have a good deal to say 
 about him, because he was one of the best men that ever 
 wore a crown. He was great in every respect ; he was 
 great as a soldier, great as a jurist, great as an executive, 
 broad-minded, generous, benevolent, tolerant and wise, 
 an almost perfect type of a ruler, if we are to believe what 
 the historians of his time tell us about him. He was the 
 handsomest man in his empire ; he excelled all his sub- 
 jects in athletic exercises, in endurance and in physical 
 strength and skill. He was the best swordsman and the 
 best horseman and his power over animals was as com- 
 
THE ANCIENT MOGUL EMPIRE 207 
 
 plete as over men. And" as an architect he stands un- 
 rivaled except by his grandson, who inherited his taste. 
 
 Although a pagan and without the light of the gospel, 
 Akbar recognized the merits of Christianity and exempli- 
 fied the ideals of civil and religions liberty which it 
 teaches, and which are now considered the highest attri- 
 bute of a well-ordered state. While Queen Elizabeth was 
 sending her Catholic subjects to the scaffold and the rack, 
 while Philip II. was endeavoring to ransom the souls of 
 heretics from perdition by burning their bodies alive in 
 the public plazas of his cities, and while the awful incident 
 of St. Bartholomew indicated the religious condition of 
 France, the great IMogul of Delhi called around his 
 throne ministers of peace from all religions, proclaimed 
 tolerance of thought and speech, freedom of worship and 
 theological controversy throughout his dominions ; he 
 abolished certain Hindu practices, such as trials by or- 
 deal, child marriage, the burning of widows and other 
 customs which have since been revived, because he con- 
 sidered them contrary to justice, good morals and the 
 welfare of his people, and displayed a cosmopolitan spirit 
 bv marrying wives from the Brahmin, Buddhist, Moham- 
 medan and Christian faiths. He invited the Roman 
 Catholic missionaries, who were enjoying great success 
 at Goa, the Portuguese colony 200 miles south from Bom- 
 bay, to come to Agra and expound their doctrines, and 
 gave them land and money to build a church. His grand- 
 son and successor married a Catholic queen — a Portu- 
 guese princess. 
 
 But notwithstanding the just, generous and noble life 
 of Akbar, he was overthrown by his own son, Selim, who 
 took the high-sounding title Jehanghir, "Conqueror of 
 the World," and he had been reigning but a short time 
 
2o8 MODERN INDIA 
 
 when his own son, Kushru, endeavored to treat him in 
 the same manner. The revolt was promptly quelled. 
 Seven hundred of the supporters of the young prince 
 were impaled in a row, and that reckless youth was con- 
 ducted slowly along the line so that he could hear the 
 dying reproaches of the victims of his misguided ambi- 
 tion. Other of his sons also organized rebellions after- 
 ward and "the conqueror of the world" had considerable 
 difficulty in retaining his seat upon the throne, but he 
 proved to be a very good king. He was just and tolerant, 
 sober and dignified and scrupulous in observing the re- 
 quirements of his position, and was entirely subject to the 
 influence of a beautiful and brilliant wife. 
 
 His successor was Shah Jehan, one of the most inter- 
 esting and romantic figures in Indian history, who began 
 his reign by murdering his brothers. That precaution 
 firmly established him upon the throne. He, too, was con- 
 sidered a good king, but his fame rests chiefly upon the 
 splendor of his court and the magnificent structures he 
 erected. He rebuilt the ancient City of Delhi upon a new 
 site, adorned it with public buildings of unparalleled cost 
 and beauty, and received his subjects seated upon the 
 celebrated peacock throne, a massive bench of solid gold 
 covered with mosaic figures of diamonds, rubies, pearls 
 and other precious stones. It cost £6.500,000, which 
 is $32,500,000 of our money, even in those times, 
 w^hen jewels were cheap compared with the prices of to- 
 n^^ day. In 1729 Nadir Shah, the King of Persia, swooped 
 down upon India and carried this wonder of the world 
 to his own capital, together with about $200,000,000 in 
 other portable property. 
 
 There are many good traits in the character of Shah 
 Jehan. Aside from his extravagance, his administration 
 
THE ANCIENT MOGUL EMPIRE 209 
 
 was to be highly commended. Under his rule India 
 reached the summit of its wealth and prosperity, and the 
 people enjoyed liberty and peace, but retribution came at 
 last, and his sons did unto him as he had done unto his 
 father, and much more also. They could not wait until 
 he was ready to relinquish power or until death took the 
 scepter from his hand, but four of them rebelled against 
 him, drove him from the throne and kept him a prisoner 
 for the last eight years of his life. But scarcely had they 
 overthrown him when they began to quarrel among them- 
 selves, and Aurangzeb, the fourth son, being the 
 strongest among them, simplified the situation by slaugh- 
 tering his three brothers, and was thus able to reign un- 
 molested for more than half a century, until he died in 
 1707, 89 years old. His last days were embittered by a 
 not unnatural fear that he would suffer the fate of his 
 own father. 
 
 From the time that the Emperor Aurangzeb climbed 
 to the throne of the Moguls upon the dead bodies of his 
 father and three elder brothers, the glory and power of 
 that empire began to decay. He reigned forty-nine years. 
 His court was magnificent. At the beginning his admin- 
 istration was wise and just, and he was without question 
 an able, brave and cultured king. But, whether as an 
 atonement for his crimes or for some other reason, he be- 
 came a religious fanatic, and after a few years the broad- 
 minded policy of religious liberty and toleration, which 
 was the chief feature of the reign of his father and his 
 grandfather, was reversed, and he endeavored to force 
 all of his subjects into the Mohammedan faith. He im- 
 posed a heavy head tax upon all who did not profess that 
 faith ; he excluded all but Moslems from the public serv- 
 ice; he deprived "infidels," as they were generally termed. 
 
2IO MODERN INDIA 
 
 of valuable civil rights and privileges ; he desecrated the 
 shrines and destroyed the sacred images of the Hindus, 
 and prohibited the religious festivals and other features 
 of their worship. The motive of this policy was no doubt 
 conscientious, but the effect was the same as that which 
 has followed similar sectarian zeal in other countries. 
 The history of the world demonstrates that religious in- 
 tolerance and persecution always destroy prosperity. No 
 nation ever prospered that prohibited freedom of wor- 
 ship. You will find a striking demonstration of that truth 
 in Spain, in the Balkan states and in the Ottoman Em- 
 pire, in modern times without going back to the Jews and 
 other ancient races. The career of Aurangzeb is strik- 
 ingly like that of Philip II. of Spain, and his character 
 was similar to that of Louis XIV. of France, who was his 
 contemporary. Both were unscrupulous, arrogant, ego- 
 tistical and cruel kings ; both were religious devotees and 
 endeavored to compensate for a lack of morals by exces- 
 sive zeal in persecuting heretics, and in promoting what 
 they considered the interests of their church ; and both 
 created disaffection and provoked rebellion among their 
 subjects, and undermined the power and authority of the 
 dynasties to which they belonged. 
 
 It is needless to review the slow but gradual decay of 
 the Great ]\Iogul Empire. With the adoption of Aurang- 
 zeb's policy of intolerance it began to crumble, and none 
 of his successors proved able to restore it. He died in 
 1707, and the throne of the Moguls was never again oc- 
 cupied by a man of force or notable ability. The history 
 of the empire during the eighteenth century is merely a 
 record of successive failures, of disintegration, of suc- 
 cessful rebellions and of invasions by foreign foes, which 
 stripped the Moguls of their wealth and destroyed their 
 
THE ANCIENT MOGUL EMPIRE 211 
 
 resources. First came the Persians ; then the Afghans, 
 who plundered the imperial capital, desecrated tombs and 
 temples, destroyed the fortresses and palaces and left 
 little but distress and devastation when they departed. 
 One by one the provinces separated themselves from the 
 empire and set up their own independence ; until in 1804 
 the English took possession of the remnant and have 
 maintained their authority ever since. 
 
 Within the wall of the great citadel at Delhi, for 
 reasons of policy, the English allowed the great Mogul 
 to maintain a fictitious court, and because the title con- 
 tinued to command the veneration of the natives, at 
 state ceremonies the nominal successor of Timour the 
 Tartar was allowed to sit upon a throne in the imperial 
 hall of audience and receive the homage of the people. 
 But the Moguls were not allowed to exercise authority 
 and were idle puppets in the hands of their advisers until 
 the great mutiny of 1857 brought the native soldiers into 
 the palace crying: 
 
 "Help, oh King, in our Fight for the Faith." 
 It is not necessary to relate the details of that awful 
 episode of Indian history, but it will do no harm to recall 
 what we learned in our school days of the principal inci- 
 dents and refer to the causes which provoked it. From 
 the beginning of the British occupation of India there 
 had been frequent local uprisings caused by discontent or 
 conspiracy, but the East India Company, and the of- 
 ficials of the British government who supported it, had 
 perfect confidence in the loyalty of the sepoys — the native 
 soldiers who were hired to fight against their fellow 
 countrymen for so much pay. They were officered by 
 Englishmen, whose faith in them was only extinguished 
 by assassination and massacre. The general policy and 
 
212 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the genera, results of British administration have been 
 worthy of the highest commendation, but there have been 
 many blunders and much injustice from time to time, 
 due to individuals rather than to the nation. A weak and 
 unwise man in authority can do more harm in a year than 
 can be corrected in a century. Several so-called "re- 
 forms" had been introduced into the native army ; orders 
 had been issued forbidding the use of caste marks, the 
 wearing of earrings and other things which Englishmen 
 considered trivial, but were of great importance to the 
 Hindus. Native troops were ordered over the sea, which 
 caused them to lose their caste; new regulations admitted 
 low-caste men to the service ; the entire army was pro- 
 vided with a new uniform with belts and cockades made 
 from the skins of animals which the Hindus considered 
 sacred, and cartridges were issued which had been cov- 
 ered \vith lard to protect them from the moisture of the 
 climate, and, as everybody knows, the flesh of swine is the 
 most unclean thing in existence to the pious Hindu. All 
 these things, which the stubborn, stupid Englishmen con- 
 sidered insignificant, were regarded by the sepoys as de- 
 liberate attacks upon their religion, and certain conspir- 
 ators, who had reasons for desiring to destroy British 
 authority, used them to convince the native soldiers that 
 the new regulations were a long-considered and deliber- 
 ate attempt to deprive them of their caste and force them 
 to become Christians. Unfortunately the British officers 
 in command refused to treat the complaints seriously, 
 and laughed in the faces of their men, which was insult 
 added to injury, and was interpreted as positive proof of 
 the evil intentions of the government. 
 
 This situation was taken advantage of by certain Hin- 
 du princes who had been deprived of power or of pen- 
 
THE ANCIENT MOGUL EMPIRE 213 
 
 sions previously granted. Nana Sahib, the deposed raja 
 of Poona, was the leader, and the unsuspecting author- 
 ities allowed him to travel about the country stirring up 
 discontent and conspiring with other disloyal native 
 chiefs for a general uprising and massacre, which, ac- 
 cording to their programme, occurred in northern India 
 during the summer of 1857. If the British had desired to 
 play into the hands of the conspirators they could not 
 have adopted a policy more effective in that direction. 
 Utterly unconscious of danger and unsuspicious of the 
 conspiracies that were enfolding them, they relieved city 
 after city of its guard of English troops and issued arms 
 and ammunition in unusual and unnecessary quantities to 
 the sepoys, at whose mercy the entire foreign population 
 was left. 
 
 The outbreak occurred according to the programme of 
 Nana Sahib, who proved to be a leader of great ability 
 and strategic skill, and in nearly every city of northern 
 India, particularly at Delhi, Lucknow, Cawnpore and^^i^i^M 
 other places along the Ganges, men, women and children, 
 old and young, in the foreign colonies were butchered in 
 cold blood. In Agra 6,000 foreigners gathered for pro- 
 tection in the walls of the great fort, and most of them 
 were saved. Small detachments of brave soldiers under 
 General Havelock, Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir Colin Camp- 
 bell, Sir Hugh Rose, Lord Napier and other leaders 
 fought their way to the rescue, and the conspiracy was 
 finally crushed, but not without untold suffering and 
 enormous loss of life. 
 
 On the evening of May ii, 1857, about fifty foreigners, 
 all unarmed civilians, were brought into the palace at 
 Delhi, and by order of Bahander Shah, the Mogul whom 
 the mutineer leaders had proclaimed Emperor of India, 
 
214 MODERN INDIA 
 
 were thrust into a dung^eon, starved for five days and then 
 hacked to pieces in the beautiful courtyard. The new 
 emperor, a weak-minded old man with no energy or abil- 
 ity, and scarcely intellect enough to realize his responsi- 
 bilities, pronounced judgment and issued the orders pre- 
 pared for him by the conspirators by whom he was sur- 
 rounded. But retribution was swift and sure. A few 
 weeks later when the British troops blew in the walls of 
 the palace citadel after one of the most gallant assaults 
 ever recorded in the annals of war, the old man, with two 
 of his sons, fled to the tomb of Humayon, who occupied 
 the Mogul throne from 1531 to 1556, as if that sanctuary 
 would be revered by the British soldiers. 
 
 This tomb is one of the most notable buildings in India. 
 It stands on the bank of the Jumna River, about five 
 miles from the present city of Delhi. It is an octagonal 
 mass of rose-colored sandstone and white marble, dec- 
 orated with an ingenuity of design and delicacy of execu- 
 tion that have never been surpassed, and is crowned by 
 a marble dome of perfect Persian pattern, three-fourths 
 the diameter of that of St. Paul's Cathedral of London, 
 and almost as large as that of the Capitol at Washington. 
 In this splendid mausoleum, where twelve of his imperial 
 ancestors sleep, the Last of the Moguls endeavored to 
 conceal himself and his sons, but Colonel Hodson, who 
 commanded a desperate volunteer battalion of foreigners 
 whose property had been confiscated or destroyed by the 
 mutineers, whose wives had been ravished and whose 
 children had been massacred, followed the flying Mogul 
 to the asylum he sought, and dragged him trembling and 
 begging for mercy from among the tombs. 
 
 Hodson was a man of remarkable character and de- 
 termination and was willing to assume responsibility, and 
 
THE ANCIENT MOGUL EMPIRE 215 
 
 "Hodson's Horse," as the volunteer battalion was called, 
 were the Rough Riders of the Indian mutiny. He took 
 the aged king back to Delhi and delivered him to the 
 British authorities alive, but almost imbecile from terror 
 and excitement. The two princes, 19 and 22 years of 
 age, he deliberately shot with his own revolver before 
 leaving the courtyard of the tomb in which they were 
 captured. 
 
 This excited the horror of all England. The atrocities 
 of the mutineers were almost forgotten for the moment. 
 That the heirs of the throne of the great Moguls should 
 be killed by a British officer while prisoners of war was 
 an offense against civilization and Christianity that could 
 not be tolerated, although only a few weeks before these 
 two same princes had participated in the cold-blooded 
 butchery of fifty Christian women and children. There 
 was a parliamentary investigation. Hodson explained 
 that he had only a few men, too few to guard three pris- 
 oners of such importance ; that he was surrounded by 
 fifty thousand half-armed and excited natives, who would 
 have exterminated his little band and rescued his pris- 
 oners if any one of their number had possessed sufficient 
 presence of mind and courage to make the attempt. Con- 
 vinced that he could not conduct three prisoners through 
 that crowd of their adherents and sympathizers without 
 sacrificing his own life and that of his escort, he took the 
 responsibility of shooting the princes like the reptiles they 
 were, and thus relieved the British government from 
 what might have been a most embarrassing situation. 
 
 Hodson was condemned by parliament and public 
 opinion, while the bloodthirsty old assassin he had cap- 
 tured was treated as gently and as generously as if he 
 had been a saint. Bahandur Shah was tried and con- 
 
2i6 MODERN INDIA 
 
 victed of treason, but was acquitted of responsibility for 
 the massacre on the ground that his act authorizing it 
 was a mere formaHty, and that it would have occurred 
 without his consent at any rate. Instead of hanging him 
 the British government sent him in exile to Rangoon, 
 where he was furnished a comfortable bungalow and re- 
 ceived a generous pension until November, 1862, when 
 he died. Bahandur Shah had a third son, a worthless 
 drunken fellow, who managed to escape the consequences 
 of his participation in the massacre and accompanied him 
 into exile. He survived his father for several years and 
 left a widow and several children at Rangoon, including 
 a son, who inherited his indolence, but not his vices. The 
 latter still lives there on a small pension from the British 
 government, is idle, indifferent, amiable and well-liked. 
 He goes to the races, the polo games and tennis matches, 
 and takes interest in other sports, but is too lazy to par- 
 ticipate. He has married a Burmese wife and they have 
 several children, who live with him in the bungalow 
 that was assigned to his grandfather when he was sent 
 to Burma forty-five years ago, and, judging from ap- 
 pearances, it has not been repaired since. Although he is 
 perfectly harmless, the Last of the Moguls is required to 
 report regularly to the British commandant and is not al- 
 lowed to leave Burma, even if he should ever desire to 
 do so. 
 
XIV 
 
 THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOGULS 
 
 Although the Moguls have vanished, their glory re- 
 mains in the most sublime and beautiful monuments that 
 were ever erected by human hands, and people come from 
 the uttermost parts of the earth to admire them. In the 
 form of fortresses, palaces, temples and tombs they are 
 scattered pretty well over northern India, and the finest 
 examples may be found at Agra, a city of 200,000 inhab- 
 itants, only a short ride from Delhi, the Mogul capital. 
 Agra was their favorite residence. Akbar the Great ac- 
 tually removed the seat of government there the latter 
 part of the sixteenth century, and expended genius and 
 money until he made it the most beautiful city in India 
 and filled it with the most splendid palaces that were ever 
 seen. Shah Jehan, his grandson, who was a greater man 
 than he, and lived and reigned nearly a hundred years 
 after him, even surpassed him in architectural ambition 
 and accomplishments. Jehan built the fort at Agra, and 
 the best specimens of his architectural work are within its 
 walls, erected between 1630 and 1637, and he was con- 
 fined within them, the prisoner of his son Aurangzeb, for 
 seven years before his death, from 1658 to 1665. 
 
 The fortress at Agra is probably the grandest citadel 
 ever erected. It surpasses in beauty and strength the 
 Kremlin at Moscow, the Tower of London, the citadel at 
 Toledo and every other fortress I know of. Nothing 
 
 217 
 
2i8 MODERN INDIA 
 
 erected in modern times can compare with it. Althoiif3:h 
 it would be a poor defense and protection against modern 
 projectiles, it was impregnable down to the mutiny of 
 1857. The walls are two miles and a quarter in circum- 
 ference ; they are protected by a moat 30 feet wide and 35 
 feet deep ; they are 70 feet high and 30 feet thick, and 
 built of enormous blocks of red sandstone. There are 
 two entrances, both very imposing, one called the Delhi 
 Gate and the other the Elephant Gate, where there used 
 to be two large stone elephants, but they were removed 
 many years ago. Within the walls is a collection of the 
 most magnificent oriental palaces ever erected, with 
 mosques, barracks, arsenals, storehouses, baths and other 
 buildings for residential, official and military purposes, 
 all of them on the grandest scale. Since the British have 
 had possession they have torn down many of the old 
 buildings and have erected unsightly piles of brick and 
 stone in their places, but while such vandalism cannot be 
 condemned in terms too strong, the world should be 
 grateful to them for leaving the most characteristic and 
 costly of the Mogul residences undisturbed. A small 
 garrison of English soldiers is quartered in the fortress 
 at present, just enough to protect it and keep things in 
 order, but there is room for several regiments, and dur- 
 ing the mutiny of 1857 more than 6,000 foreigners, refu- 
 gees from northern India, found refuge and protection 
 here. 
 
 Although the palaces seem bare and comfortless to us 
 to-day, and we wonder how people could ever be con- 
 tented to live in them, we are reminded that when they 
 were actually occupied the open arches were hung with 
 curtains, the marble floors were spread with rugs and 
 covered with cushions, and the banquet halls were fur- 
 
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOGULS 219 
 
 nished with sumptuous services of gold, silver and linen. 
 The Moguls were not ascetics. They loved luxury and 
 lived in great magnificence with every comfort and con- 
 venience that the ingenuity and experience of those days 
 could contrive. It is never safe to judge of things by 
 your own standard. You may always be sure that in- 
 telligent people will adapt themselves in the best possible 
 manner to their conditions and environment. Those 
 who live in the tropics know much better how to make 
 themselves comfortable than friends who visit them from 
 the arctic zone. Wise travelers will always imitate local 
 habits and customs so far as they are able to do so. 
 While these wonderful compositions of carved marble 
 seem cold and comfortless as they stand empty to-day, we 
 must not forget that they were very different when they 
 were actually inhabited. Some idea of the luxury of the 
 Mogul court may be gained from an account given by M. 
 Bernier, a Frenchman who visited Agra in 1663 during 
 the reign of Shah Jehan. He says : 
 
 "The king appeared sitting upon his throne, in the bot- 
 tom of the great hall of the Am-kas, splendidly appareled. 
 His vest was of white satin, flowered and raised with a 
 very fine embroidery of gold and silk. His turban was of 
 cloth-of-gold, having a fowl wrought upon it like a heron, 
 whose foot was covered with diamonds of an extraor- 
 dinary bigness and price, with a great oriental topaz, 
 which may be said to be matchless, shining like a little 
 sun. A collar of big pearls hung about his neck down to 
 his stomach, after the manner that some of the heathens 
 wear their great beads. His throne was supported by six 
 pillars, or feet, said to be of massive gold, and set with 
 rubies, emeralds and diamonds, I am not able to tell you 
 aright either the number or the price of this heap of 
 
220 MODERN INDIA 
 
 precious stones, because it is not pcnnitted to come near 
 enough to count them and to judge of their water and 
 purity. Only this I can say : that the big diamonds are 
 there in confusion, and that the throne is estimated to be 
 worth four kouroures of roupies, if I remember well. I 
 have said elsewhere that a roupie is almost equivalent to 
 half a crown, a lecque to a hundred thousand roupies and 
 a kourour to a hundred lecques, so that the throne is 
 valued at forty millions of roupies, which are worth about 
 sixty millions of French livres. That' which I find upon 
 it best devised are two peacocks covered with precious 
 stones and pearls. Beneath this throne there appeared 
 all the Omrahs, in splendid apparel, upon a raised ground 
 covered with a canopy of purified gold, with great golden 
 fringes and inclosed by a silver balistre. The pillars of 
 the hall were hung with tapestries of purified gold, hav- 
 ing the ground of gold ; and for the roof of the hall there 
 was nothing but great canopies of flowered satin, 
 fastened with great red silken cords that had big tufts of 
 silk mixed with threads of gold." 
 
 The gem of the architectural exhibition at Agra, always 
 exempting the Taj Mahal, is the "Pearl Mosque," 
 so called because it is built of stainless white marble, 
 without the slightest bit of color within except inscrip- 
 tions from the Koran here and there inlaid in precious 
 stones. It was the private chapel of the Aloguls, as you 
 might say ; was built between 1648 and 1655, and has 
 been pronounced by the highest authority to be the purest 
 and most elegant example of Saracenic architecture in 
 existence. No lovelier sanctuary was ever erected in 
 honor of the Creator. One of the inscriptions tells us 
 that it was intended to be "likened to a mansion of para- 
 dise or to a precious pearl." It is built after the usual 
 
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOGULS 221 
 
 fashion, a square courtyard paved with white marble and 
 surrounded by a marble colonnade of exquisite arches, 
 supported by pillars of perfect grace. The walls upon 
 three sides are solid ; the western side, looking toward 
 Mecca, being entirely open, a succession of arches sup- 
 ported by columns exquisitely carved. And the roof is 
 crowned with a forest of minarets and three white marble 
 domes. In the center of the courtyard is a marble tank 
 thirty-seven feet square and three feet deep, in which the 
 faithful performed their ablutions before going to prayer. 
 Near by the mosque is the Diwan-i-'Am, or Hall of 
 Public Audience, 201 feet square, in which the Moguls 
 received their subjects and held court. The roof is sup- 
 ported by nine rows of graceful columns cut from red 
 sandstone and formerly covered with gold. The rest of 
 the building is marble. The throne stood upon a high 
 platform in an alcove of white marble, richly decorated, 
 and above it are balconies protected by grilles or screens 
 behind which the sultanas were permitted to watch the 
 proceedings. Back of the audience-room is a great quad- 
 rangle, planted with trees, flowers and vines. White 
 marble walks radiate from a marble platform and fountain 
 basin in the center, and divide the garden into beds which, 
 we are told, were filled with soil brought from Cashmere 
 because of its richness. And even to-day gardeners 
 say that it is more productive than any found in this 
 part of the country. Around this court were the apart- 
 ments of the zenana, or harem, occupied by the mother, 
 sisters, wives and daughters of the sultan who were more 
 or less prisoners, but had considerable area to wander 
 about in, and could sit in the jasmine tower, one of the 
 most exquisite pieces of marble work you can imagine, 
 and on the flat roofs of the palaces, which were protected 
 
222 MODERN INDIA 
 
 by high screens, and enjoy views over the surroundin,^ 
 country and up and down the Jumna River. From this 
 lofty eyrie they could witness reviews of the troops and 
 catch ghmpscs of the gay cavalcades that came in and 
 out of the fortress, and in a small courtyard was a bazar 
 where certain favored merchants from the city were al- 
 lowed to come and exhibit goods to the ladies of the 
 court. But these were the only glimpses female royalty 
 ever had of the outer world. 
 
 No man was ever admitted to the zenana except the 
 emperor. All domestic work was done by women, who 
 were watched on the outside by eunuchs and then by 
 soldiers. They had their own place of worship, the "Gem 
 Mosque" they called it, a beautiful little structure erected 
 by Shah Jehan, and afterward used as his prison. 
 
 The baths are of the most sumptuous character. The 
 walls are decorated with raised foliage work in colors, sil- 
 ver and gold, upon a ground of mirrors, and the ceiling is 
 finished with pounded mica, which has the effect of silver. 
 Fronting the entrance of the bathrooms are row'S of lights 
 over which the water poured in broad sheets into a basin, 
 then, running over a little marble causeway, fell over a 
 second cluster of lights into another basin, and then an- 
 other and another, five in succession, so that many ladies 
 were able to bathe in these fascinating fountains at the 
 same time. Below the baths we were shown some dark 
 and dreary vaults. In the center of the most gloomy of 
 them there is a pit — a well — which, the guide told us, has 
 its outlet in the bottom of the river, three-quarters of a 
 mile away. Over this pit hangs a heavy beam of wood 
 very highly carved, and in the center is a groove from 
 which dangles a silken rope. Here, according to tradi- 
 tion, unfaithful inmates of the harem were hanged, and 
 
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOGULS 223 
 
 when life was extinct the cord was cut and the body fell 
 into the pit, striking the keen edge of knives at frequent 
 intervals, so that it finally reached the river in small frag- 
 ments, which were devoured by fishes or crocodiles, or if 
 they escaped them, floated down to the sea. After each 
 execution a flood of water was turned from the fountains 
 into the pit to wash away the stains. 
 
 But let us turn from this terrible place to the jasmine 
 tower containing apartments of the chief sultana, which 
 overhangs the walls of the fort and is surpassingly beauti- 
 ful : a series of rooms entirely of marble — roof, walls and 
 floor — and surrounded by a broad marble veranda sup- 
 ported by noble arches springing from graceful, slender 
 pillars arranged in pairs and protected by a balustrade of 
 perforated marble. One could scarcely imagine anything 
 more dainty than these lacelike screens of stone extreme- 
 ly simple in design and exquisite in execution. The in- 
 terior walls are incrusted with mosaic work of jasper, 
 carnelian, lapis-lazuli, agate, turquoise, bloodstone, mal- 
 achite and other precious materials in the form of foliage, 
 flowers, ornamental scrolls, sentences from the Koran in 
 Arabic letters and geometrical patterns. The decoration 
 is as beautiful and as rich as the Taj Mahal, so far as it 
 goes, and was done by the same artists. 
 
 There is a broad field for the imagination to range 
 about in and picture this palace when it was a paradise 
 of luxury and splendor, filled with gorgeous and costly 
 hangings, draperies, rugs, couches and cushions. The 
 writers of the time tell us that the sultanas had 5,000 
 women around them who were divided into companies. 
 First were the three chief wives, next in rank were 300 
 concubines and the remainder were dancing girls, 
 musicians, artists, embroiderers, seamstresses, hair dress- 
 
224 MODERN INDIA 
 
 ers, cooks and other servants. The mother of the Mogul 
 was always the head of the household. The three em- 
 presses were subject to her authority, according to the 
 oriental custom, and while they might stand first in the 
 aflfections of the Mogul they were subordinate to his 
 mother, who conducted affairs about the harem, we are 
 told, with the same regularity and strictness that were 
 found in the executive departments of the state. Each of 
 the wives received an allowance according to her rank. 
 If she had a child, especially a son, she was immediately 
 promoted to the highest rank, given larger and better 
 quarters, provided with many more servants and fur- 
 nished with a much larger allowance in money. 
 
 The apartments of the emperor are quite plain when 
 compared with the adjoining suite of the favorite sultana, 
 but are massive, dignified and appropriate for a sovereign 
 of his wealth and power, and everything is finished with 
 that peculiar elegance which is only found in the East. 
 In all the great cluster of buildings there is nothing mean 
 or commonplace. Every apartment, every corridor, every 
 arch and every column is perfect and a wonder of archi- 
 tectural design, construction and decoration. 
 
 From the emperor's apartments you may pass through 
 a stately pavilion to a large marble courtyard. Upon one 
 side of it, next to the wall that overhangs the river, is a 
 slab of black marble known as "The Black Marble 
 Throne." And upon this he used to sit when hearing 
 appeals for justice from his subjects or other business of 
 supreme importance. Upon the opposite side of the court 
 is a white marble slab upon which the grand vizier sat 
 and to the east is a platform where seats were provided 
 for the judges, the nobles and the grandees of the court. 
 
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOGULS 225 
 
 In this pavilion have occurred some of the most exciting 
 scenes in Indian history. 
 
 Perhaps you would like to know something about the 
 women who lived in these wonderful palaces, and are 
 buried in the beautiful tombs at Agra. They had their 
 romances and their tragedies, and although the Moham- 
 medan custom kept them closely imprisoned in the zen- 
 anas, they nevertheless exerted a powerful influence in 
 arranging the destinies of the Mogul empire. The most 
 notable of the women, and one who would have taken a 
 prominent part in affairs in whatever country or in what- 
 ever generation it had pleased the Almighty to place her, 
 was Nur Jehan, sultana of the Mogul Jehanghir. She 
 lived in the marble palace of Agra from 1556 to 1605; a 
 woman of extraordinary force of character, the equal of 
 Queen Elizabeth in intellect and of Mary Stuart in phys- 
 ical attractions, and her life was a mixture of romance 
 and tragedy. Her father, Mizra Gheas Bey, or Itimad- 
 Ud Daula, as he was afterward known, was grand vizier 
 cf the Mogul empire during the latter part of the reign of 
 Akbar the Great, An obscure but ambitious Persian 
 scholar, hearing of the generous patronage extended to 
 students by Emperor Akbar in India, he started from 
 Teheran to Delhi overland, a distance of several thousand 
 miles. He had means enough to buy a donkey for his 
 wife to ride, and trudged along with a caravan on foot 
 beside the animal to protect her and the panniers which 
 contained all their earthly possessions. The morning 
 after the caravan reached Kandahar, Turkestan, a daugh- 
 ter was born to the wife of Mirza, and was, naturally, a 
 great source of anxiety and embarrassment to him, but 
 the principal merchant of the caravan, struck with the 
 beauty of the child and with sympathy for the mother, 
 
226 MODERN INDIA 
 
 provided for their immediate needs, took them with him 
 to Aj^ra and there used his good offices with the officials 
 in behalf of the father, who was ^iven employment under 
 the government. His ability and fidelity were soon rec- 
 ognized. He was promoted rapidly, and finally reached 
 the highest office in the gift of the Mogul — that of prime 
 minister of the empire — which he filled with conspicuous 
 ability, wisdom and prudence for many years. As his 
 daughter grew to girlhood she attracted the attention of 
 Prince Jehanghir, who became violently in love with her, 
 and, to prevent complications, the emperor caused her to 
 be married to Shir Afghan Kahn, a young Persian of ex- 
 cellent family, who was made viceroy of Bengal, and 
 took his wife with him to Calcutta. 
 
 Several years later, when Jehanghir ascended the 
 throne, he had not forgotten the beautiful Persian, and 
 sent emissaries to Calcutta to arrange with her husband 
 for a divorce so that he might take her into his own 
 harem. Shir Afghan refused, and the king ordered his 
 assassination. Nur Jehan undoubtedly loved her hus- 
 band, and sincerely mourned him. She repelled the ad- 
 dresses of the emperor, and for several years earned her 
 living by embroidery and painting silks. One day the 
 emperor surprised her in her apartment. He was the 
 only man in India who had the right to intrude upon his 
 lady subjects, but seems to have used it with rare discre- 
 tion. When she recognized her visitor she bowed her 
 head to the floor nine times in accordance with the cus- 
 tom of the country ; and although she was wearing the 
 simplest of garments, she had lost none of her beauty or 
 graces, and treated the Mogul with becoming modesty 
 and dignity. When he reproached her for her plain at- 
 tire she replied : 
 
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOGULS 227 
 
 "Those born to servitude must dress as it shall please 
 them whom they serve. Those women around me are my 
 servants and I lighten their bondage by every indulgence 
 in my power ; and I, who am your slave, O Emperor of 
 the World, am willing to dress according to your pleasure 
 and not my own." 
 
 This significant retort pleased His Majesty immensely, 
 and, with the facilities that were afforded emperors in 
 those days, he had her sent at once to the imperial harem, 
 where she was provided with every possible comfort and 
 luxury and was promoted rapidly over the other women. 
 She received the title Nur Jehan Begam (Light of the 
 World). The Emperor granted her the right of sover- 
 eignty in her own name ; her portrait was placed upon 
 the coin of the country ; and after several years her power 
 became so great that the officials would not obey any im- 
 portant order from his majesty unless it bore her indorse- 
 ment. He willingly submitted to her judgment and 
 counsel. She repressed his passions, caprices and prej- 
 udices, and when any matter of serious importance arose 
 in the administration of affairs, it was submitted to her 
 before action was taken. Her beauty and her graces 
 were the theme of all the poets of India, and her good- 
 ness, the kindness of her heart and her unbounded gen- 
 erosity are preserved by innumerable traditions. She 
 was the godmother of all orphan girls and provided their 
 dowers when they were married, and it is said that dur- 
 ing her reign she procured good husbands for thousands 
 of friendless girls who otherwise must have spent their 
 lives in slavery. Thus the child of the desert became the 
 most powerful influence in the East, for in those days 
 the authority of the Mogul extended from the Ganges to 
 the Bosporus and the Baltic Sea. 
 
228 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Nur Jelian took good care of her own family. Her 
 father continued to occupy the office of grand vizier until 
 his death, and her brother, Asaf Khan, became high 
 treasurer of the empire and father-in-law of the Mogul. 
 Other relatives were placed in remunerative and in- 
 fluential positions. But at last she made a blunder, and 
 failed to secure the crown for her son, Sheriar, who, 
 being a younger member of the family, was not entitled 
 to it, and Shah Jehan, the oldest son of the Mogul by 
 another wife, succeeded him to the throne. 
 
 Shah Jehan promptly murdered his ambitious brother, 
 as was the amiable custom of those days, but treated his 
 father's famous widow with great respect and generosity. 
 He presented her with a magnificent palace, gave her an 
 allowance of $1,250,000 a year and accepted her pledge 
 that she would interfere no longer in politics. She sur- 
 vived nineteen years and devoted her time and talents 
 thereafter and several millions of dollars to the construc- 
 tion of a tomb to the memory of her father, which still 
 stands as one of the finest of the group of architectural 
 wonders of Agra. It is situated in a walled garden on 
 the bank of the River Jumna about a mile and a half 
 from the hotels, and is constructed entirely of white 
 marble. The sides are of the most beautiful perforated 
 work, and the towers are of exquisite design. Much 
 of the walls are covered with the Florentine mosaic work 
 similar to that which distinguishes the Taj Mahal. 
 
 Shah Jehan, the greatest of all the Moguls, had many 
 wives, and three in particular. One of them was a 
 Hindu, of whom we know very little ; another was a Mo- 
 hammedan, the daughter of Asaf Khan, high treasurer 
 of the empire and the niece of Nur Jehan. She is the wo- 
 man who sleeps in the Taj Mahal, the most beautiful 
 
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOGULS 229 
 
 of all human structures. The third was Miriam, a Por- 
 tuguese Christian princess, who never renounced her re- 
 ligion, and built a Roman Catholic Church in a park 
 outside the walls of Agra in connection with a palace pro- 
 vided for her special residence. This marriage was 
 brought about through the influence of the governor of 
 the Portuguese colony at Goa, 200 miles south of Bom- 
 bay, and illustrates the liberality of Shah Jehan in reli- 
 gious matters. He not only tolerated, but invited Catho- 
 lic missionaries to come into his empire and preach their 
 doctrines, and although we know very little of the ex- 
 perience of the Sultana Miriam, and her life must have 
 been rather lonely and isolated, yet the king did not 
 require her to remain in the harem with his other wives, 
 but gave her an independent establishment a considerable 
 distance from the city, where she was attended by ladies 
 of her own race and religion. Her palace has disap- 
 peared, but the church she built is still standing, and her 
 tomb is preserved. By successive changes they have 
 passed under the control of the Church of England and 
 her grounds are now occupied by an orphanage under 
 the superintendence of a Mr. Moore, who has 360 young 
 Hindus under his care. The fathers and mothers of 
 most of them died during the famine and he is teaching 
 them useful trades. We stopped to talk to some of the 
 children as we drove about the place, but did not get 
 much information. The boys giggled and ran away and 
 the workmen were surprisingly ignorant of their own 
 affairs, which, I have discovered, is a habit Hindus culti- 
 vate when they meet strangers. 
 
 Akbar the Great is buried in a cofifin of solid gold in 
 a mausoleum of exquisite beauty about six miles from 
 Agra on the road to Delhi. It is another architectural 
 
230 MODERN INDIA 
 
 wonder. Many critics consider it almost equal to Taj 
 Mahal. It is reached by a lovely drive alon£^ a splendid 
 road that runs like a green aisle through a grove of noble 
 old trees whose boughs are inhabited by myriads of par- 
 rots and monkeys. The mausoleum is quite different 
 from any other that we have seen, being a sort of pyra- 
 mid of four open platforms, standing on columns. These 
 are of red sandstone and the fourth, where rests the 
 tomb of the great Mogul, of marble. The lower stories 
 are frescoed and decorated elaborately in blue and gold. 
 The fourth or highest platform is a beautiful little 
 cloister of the purest white. No description in words 
 could possibly do it justice or convey anything like an 
 accurate idea of its beauty. Imagine, if you can, a 
 platform eighty feet from the ground reached by beauti- 
 ful stairways and inclosed by roofless walls of the purest 
 marble that was ever quarried. These walls are divided 
 into panels. Each panel contains a slab of marble about 
 an inch thick and perforated like the finest of lace. The 
 divisions and frame work, the base and frieze are chiseled 
 with embroidery in stone such as can be found nowhere 
 else. There is no roof but the sky. In the center of this 
 lofty chamber stands a solid block of marble which is 
 covered with inscriptions from the Koran in graceful, 
 flowing Persian text. Sealed within that cenotaph are 
 the remains of the great Akbar. 
 
 About three feet from his head stands a low marble 
 column exquisitely carved. It is about four feet high, 
 and in the center of the top is a defect, a rough hole, 
 which seems to have been left there intentionally. When 
 the mighty Akbar died, his son and successor, the Em- 
 peror Jehanghir, imbedded in the center of that column, 
 where it might be admired by the thousands of people 
 
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOGULS 231 
 
 who came to the tomb every day, the Kohinoor, then the 
 most valued diamond in the world and still one of the 
 most famous of jewels, and chief ornament in the British 
 crown. It was one of the most audacious exhibitions of 
 wealth and recklessness ever made, but the stone re- 
 mained there in the open air, guarded only by the ordi- 
 nary custodian of the tomb, from 1668 to 1739, when 
 Nadir, Shah of Persia, invaded India, captured Delhi, 
 sacked the palaces of the moguls, and carried back to his 
 own country more than $300,000,000 worth of their 
 treasures.. 
 
XV 
 
 THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF BUILDINGS 
 
 Once upon a time there lived an Arab woman named 
 Arjumand Banu. We know very little about her, except 
 that she lived in Agra, India, and was the Sultana of 
 Shah Jehan, the greatest of the Mogul emperors. She 
 must have been a good woman and a good wife, because, 
 after eighteen years of married life, and within twelve 
 months after his accession to the throne, in 1629, she died 
 in giving birth to her fourteenth baby. And her husband 
 loved her so much that he sheltered her grave with a 
 mausoleum which, without question or reservation, is 
 pronounced by all architects and critics to be the most 
 beautiful building in the world — the most sublime and 
 perfect work of human hands. 
 
 It is called the Taj IMahal, which means "The Crown 
 of the Palaces," and is pronounced Taash Mahal, with 
 the accent on the last syllable of the last word. Its arch- 
 itect is not definitely known, but the design is supposed 
 to have been made by Ustad Isa, a Persian, who was 
 assisted by Geronino Verroneo, an Italian, and Austin de 
 Bordeaux, a Frenchman. They are credited with the 
 mosaics and other decorations. Austin designed and 
 made the famous peacock throne at Delhi. Governor La 
 Fouche of that province, who has carefully restored the 
 park that surrounds the building, and is keeping things 
 up in a way that commands hearty commendation, has 
 
 232 
 
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF BUILDINGS 233 
 
 the original plans and specifications, which were dis- 
 covered among the archives of the Moguls in Delhi after 
 the mutiny of 1857. The records show also that the 
 tomb cost more than $20,000,000 of American money, 
 not including labor, for like those other famous sepul- 
 chers, the pyramids of Egypt, this wonderful structure was 
 erected by forced labor, by unpaid workmen, who were 
 drafted from their shops and farms by order of the Mogul 
 for that purpose, and, according to the custom of the 
 time, they were compelled to support themselves as well 
 as their families during the period of their employment. 
 Thousands of those poor, helpless creatures died of starv- 
 ation and exhaustion ; thousands perished of disease, and 
 thousands more, including women and children, suffered 
 untold distress and agony, all because one loving hus- 
 band desired to do honor to the favorite among his many 
 wives. The workmen were changed at intervals, 20,000 
 being constantly employed for twenty-two years upon 
 this eulogy in marble. The descendants of some of the 
 artists engaged upon its matchless decoration still live 
 in Agra and enjoy a certain distinction because of their 
 ancestry. Forty or fifty of them were employed by Gov- 
 ernor La Fouche in making repairs and restorations in 
 1902, and a dozen or more are still at work. It is cus- 
 tomary in that country for sons to follow the occupations 
 of their fathers. 
 
 The road to. the Taj Mahal from the City of Agra 
 crosses the River Jumna, winds about among modern 
 bungalows in which British officials and military officers 
 reside, alternating with the ruins of ancient palaces, 
 tombs, temples and shrines which are allowed to deface 
 the landscape. Some of the fields are cultivated, and in 
 December, when we were there, the business of the farm- 
 
234 MODERN INDIA 
 
 ers seemed chiefly to be that of hoisting water from 
 wells to irrigate their crops. They have a curious meth- 
 od. A team of oxen hoists the buckets with a long rope 
 running over a pulley, and every time they make a trip 
 along the well-worn pathway they dump a barrel or more 
 or much needed moisture into a ditch that feeds the 
 thirsty ground. 
 
 The roadway is well kept. It was made several centu- 
 ries ago, and was put in perfect order in 1902 on account 
 of the Imperial durbar at Delhi, which brought thousands 
 of critical strangers to see the Taj Mahal, which really is 
 the greatest sight in India, and is more famous than any 
 other building, except perhaps Westminster Abbey and 
 St. Peter's Cathedral at Rome. The road leads up to a 
 superb gateway of red sandstone inlaid with inscriptions 
 from the Koran in white marble, and surmounted by 
 twenty-six small marble domes, Moorish kiosks, arches 
 and pinnacles. This gateway is considered one of the 
 finest architectural monuments in all India. Bayard Tay- 
 lor pronounced it equal to the Taj itself. 
 
 You pass under a noble arch one hundred and forty 
 feet high and one hundred and ten feet wide, 
 which is guarded by a group of Moslem priests 
 and a squad of native soldiers who protect the property 
 from vandals. Having passed this gateway you find 
 yourself at the top of a flight of wide steps overlooking 
 a great garden, which was originally laid out by the Mo- 
 gul Shah Jehan and by Lord Curzon's orders was re- 
 stored last year as nearly as possible to its original con- 
 dition and appearance. About fifty acres are inclosed 
 by a high wall of a design appropriate to its purpose. 
 There are groups of cypress equal in size and beauty 
 to any in India ; groves of orange and lemon trees, palms 
 
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF BUILDINGS 235 
 
 and pomegranates, flowering plants and shrubs, through 
 which winding walks of gravel have been laid. From 
 the steps of the gateway to the tomb is a vista about a 
 hundred feet wide paved with white and black marble 
 with tessellated designs, inclosed with walls of cypress 
 boughs. In the center are a series of tanks, or marble 
 basins, fed from fountains-, and goldfish swim about in 
 the limpid water. This vista, of course, was intended to 
 make the first view as impressive as possible, and it is 
 safe to say that there is no other equal to it. At the 
 other end of the marble-paved tunnel of trees, against a 
 cloudless sky, rises the most symmetrical, the most per- 
 fect, perhaps the only faultless human structure in exist- 
 ence. At first one is inclined to be a little bewildered, 
 a little dazed, as if the senses were paralyzed, and could 
 not adjust themselves to this "poem in marble," or "vis- 
 ion in marble," or "dream in marble," as poets and 
 artists have rhapsodized over it for four centuries. 
 
 No building has been more often described and 
 sketched and painted and photographed. For three hun- 
 dred and fifty years it has appeared as an illustration in 
 the chapter on India in geographies, atlases and gazet- 
 teers ; it is used as a model in architectural text-books, 
 and of course is reproduced in every book that is written 
 about India. It has been modeled in gold, silver, alabaster, 
 wax and every other material that yields to the sculptor's 
 will, yet no counterfeit can ever give a satisfactory idea 
 of its loveliness, the purity of the material of which it 
 is made, the perfection of its proportions, the richness of 
 its decorations and the exquisite accuracy achieved by its 
 builders. Some one has said that the Moguls designed 
 like giants and finished like jewelers, and that epigram is 
 emphasized in the Taj Mahal. Any portion of it, any 
 
236 MODERN INDIA 
 
 feature, if taken individually, would be enough to im- 
 mortalize the architect, for every part is equally perfect, 
 equally chaste, equally beautiful. 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe it. You can find de- 
 scriptions by great pens in many books. Sir Edwin Ar- 
 nold has done it up both in prose and poetry, and 
 sprawled all over the dictionary without conveying the 
 faintest idea of its glories and loveliness. It cannot be 
 described. One might as well attempt to describe a 
 Beethoven symphony, for, if architecture be frozen mu- 
 sic, as some poet has said, the Taj Mahal is the supremest 
 and sublimest composition that human genius has pro- 
 duced. But, without using architectural terms, or gush- 
 ing any more about it, I will give you a few plain facts. 
 
 The Taj Mahal stands, as I have already told you, at 
 the bottom of a lovely garden surrounded by groves of 
 cypress trees, on the bank of the River Jumna, opposite 
 the great fortress of Agra, where, from the windows of 
 his palace, the king could always see the snowwhite 
 domes and minarets which cover the ashes of his Arab 
 wife. Its base is a marble terrace 400 feet square, ele- 
 vated eighteen feet above the level of the garden, with 
 benches arranged around so that one can sit and look 
 and look and look until its wonderful beauty soaks slowly 
 into his consciousness; until the soul is saturated. Ris- 
 ing from the terrace eighteen feet is a marble pedestal or 
 platform 313 feet square, each corner being marked with 
 a marble minaret 137 feet high ; so slender, so graceful, 
 so delicate that you cannot conceive anything more so. 
 Within their walls are winding staircases by which one 
 can reach narrow balconies like those on lighthouses and 
 look upon the Taj from different heights and study its 
 detiils from the top as well as the bottom. The domes 
 
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF BUILDINGS 237 
 
 that crown these four minarets are exact miniatures of 
 that which covers the tomb. 
 
 On the east and on the west sides of the terrace are 
 mosques built after Byzantine designs of deep red sand- 
 stone, which accentuates the purity of the marble of 
 which the tomb is made in a most effective manner. At 
 any other place, with other surroundings, these mosques 
 would be regarded worthy of prolonged study and un- 
 bounded admiration, but here they pass almost unnoticed. 
 Like the trees of the gardens and the river that flows at 
 the foot of the terrace, they are only an humble part of 
 the frame which incloses the great picture. They are in- 
 tended to serve a purpose, and they serve it well. In 
 beauty they are surpassed only by the tomb itself. 
 
 One of the mosques has recently been put in perfect 
 repair and the other is undergoing restoration, by order 
 of Lord Curzon, who believes that the architectural and 
 archaeological monuments of ancient India should be 
 preserved and protected, and he is spending considerable 
 government money for that purpose. This policy has 
 been criticised by certain Christian missionaries, who, like 
 the iconoclasts of old, would tear down heathen temples 
 and desecrate heathen tombs. Many of the most beau- 
 tiful examples of ancient Hindu architecture have al- 
 ready been destroyed by government authority, and the 
 material of which they were built has been utilized in the 
 construction of barracks and fortresses. You may not 
 perhaps believe it, but there are still living in India men 
 who call themselves servants of the Lord, who would 
 erase every other monument that is in any way associated 
 with pagan worship or traditions. They would destroy 
 even the Taj Mahal itself, and then thank God for the 
 
238 MODERN INDIA 
 
 opportunity of performing such a barbarous act in His 
 service. 
 
 Midway between the two red mosques rises a majestic 
 pile of pure white marble i86 feet square, with the cor- 
 ners cut off. It measures eighty feet from its pedestal 
 to its roof, and is surmounted by a dome also eighty feet 
 high, measuring from the roof, and fifty-eight feet in 
 diameter. Upon the summit of the dome is a spire of 
 gilded copper twenty-eight feet high, making the entire 
 structure 224 feet from the turf of the garden to the tip 
 of the spire. All of the domes are shaped like inverted 
 turnips after the Byzantine style. Four small ones sur- 
 round the central dome, exact duplicates and one-eighth 
 of its size, and they are arranged upon arches upon the 
 flat roof of the building. From each of the eight angles 
 of the roof springs a delicate spire or pinnacle, an exact 
 duplicate of the great minarets in the corners, each six- 
 teen feet high, and they are so slender that they look like 
 alabaster pencils glistening in the sunshine. The same 
 duplication is carried out through the entire building. 
 The harmony is complete. Every tower, every dome, 
 every arch, is exactly like every other tower, dome and 
 arch, differing only in dimensions. 
 
 The building is entered on the north and south sides 
 through enormous pointed arches of perfect proportions 
 reaching above the roof and at each corner of the frames 
 that inclose them is another minaret, a miniature of the 
 rest. Each of the six faces of the remainder of the oc- 
 tagon is pierced by two similar arches, one above the 
 other, opening upon galleries which serve to break the 
 force of the sun, to moderate the heat and to subdue the 
 light. They form a sort of colonnade around the building 
 above and below, and are separated from the rotunda 
 
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF BUILDINGS 239 
 
 by screens of perforated alabaster, as exquisite and deli- 
 cate in design and execution as Brussels point lace. The 
 slabs of alabaster, 12 by 8 feet in size, are pierced with 
 filigree work finely finished as if they were intended to be 
 worn as jewels upon the crown of an empress. I am 
 told that there is no stone work to compare with this any- 
 where else on earth. Hence it was not in Athens, nor in 
 Rome, but in northern India that the chisel of the sculp- 
 tor attained its most perfect precision and achieved its 
 greatest triumphs. All of the light that reaches the in- 
 terior is filtered through this trellis work. 
 
 The rotunda is unbroken, fifty-eight feet in diameter 
 and one hundred and sixty feet from the floor to the 
 apex of the dome. Like every other part of the building, 
 it is of the purest white marble, inlaid with mosaics of 
 precious stones. The walls, the pillars, the wainscoting 
 and the entire exterior as well as the interior of the build- 
 ing are the same. You have doubtless seen brooches, 
 earrings, sleeve-buttons and other ornaments of Floren- 
 tine mosaic, with floral and other designs worked 
 out with different colored stones inlaid on black or 
 white marble. You can buy paper weights of that sort, 
 and table tops which represent months of labor and the 
 most exact workmanship. They are very expensive be- 
 cause of the skill and the time required to execute them. 
 Well, upon the walls of the tomb of the Princess Arja- 
 mand are about two acres of surface covered with such 
 mosaics as fine and as perfect as if each setting were a 
 jewel intended for a queen to wear — turquoise, coral, 
 garnet, carnelian, jasper, malachite, agate, lapis lazuli, 
 onyx, nacre, bloodstone, tourmaline, sardonyx and a doz- 
 en other precious stones of different colors. The guide 
 book says that twenty-eight different varieties of stone, 
 
240 MODERN INDIA 
 
 many of them unknown to modern times, are inlaid in 
 the walls of marble. 
 
 The most beautiful of these embellishments are in- 
 scriptions, chiefly passages from the Koran and tributes 
 of praise to "The Exalted One of the Palace" who lies 
 buried there, worked out in Arabic and Persian char- 
 acters, which are the most artistic of any language, and 
 lend themselves gracefully to decorative purposes. The 
 ninety-nine names of God, which pious Mussulmans love 
 to inscribe, appear in several places. Over the archway 
 of the entrance is an inscription in Persian characters 
 wdiich reads like a paraphrase of the beatitudes : 
 
 "Onlv the Pure in Heart can Enter the Garden of 
 God." ' 
 
 This arch was once inclosed by silver doors, which were 
 carried off by the Persians when they invaded India and 
 sacked the palaces of Agra in 1739. 
 
 There is no wood or metal in this building ; not a nail 
 or a screw or a bolt of any sort. It is entirely of marble, 
 mortised and fastened with cement. 
 
 The acoustic properties of the rotunda are remarkable 
 and a sound uttered by a human voice will creep around 
 its curves repeating and repeating itself like the vibra- 
 tions of the gongs of Burmese temples, until it is lost in 
 a whisper at the apex of the dome. I should like to hear 
 a violin there or a hymn softly sung by some great artist. 
 
 In the center of the rotunda Shah Jehan and his be- 
 loved wife are supposed to lie side by side in marble 
 caskets, inlaid with rich gems and erribellished by infinite 
 skill with lacelike tracery. But their bodies are actually 
 buried in the basement, and, the guides assert, in coffins 
 of solid gold. She for whom this tomb was built occu- 
 pies the center. Her lord and lover, because he was a 
 
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF BUILDINGS 241 
 
 man and an emperor, was entitled to a larger sarcopha- 
 gus, a span loftier and a span longer. Both of the cen- 
 otaphs are embellished with inlaid and carved Arabic 
 inscriptions. Upon his, in Persian characters, are written 
 these words : 
 
 "His Majesty, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Shadow 
 of Allah, whose Court is now in Heaven ; Saith Jesus, 
 on whom be peace, This World is a Bridge ; Pass thou 
 over it. Build not upon it ! It lasteth but an Hour ; De- 
 vote its Minutes to thy Prayers ; for the Rest is Unseen 
 and Unknown !" 
 
 No other person has such a tomb as this ; nor pope, nor 
 potentate, nor emperor. Nowhere else have human pride 
 and wealth and genius struggled so successfully against 
 the forgetfulness of man. The Princess Arjamand has 
 little place in history, but a devoted, loving husband has 
 rescued her name from oblivion, and has immortalized 
 her by making her dust the tenant of the most majestic 
 and beautiful of all human monuments. 
 
 Everybody admits that the Taj Mahal is the noblest 
 tribute of affection and the most perfect triumph of the 
 architectural art in existence, and the beautiful edifices 
 in the fort at Agra, which we also owe to Shah Jehan, the 
 greatest of the Moguls, have already been mentioned 
 but I am conscious that my words are weak. It is not 
 possible to describe them accurately. No pen can do 
 them justice. The next best work in India, a group of 
 buildings second only to those in Agra, and in many re- 
 spects their equal, are credited to Akbar the Great, grand- 
 father of Shah Jehan, He reigned from 1556 to 1605. 
 They may be found at Fattehpur-Sikir (the City of Vic- 
 tory), twenty-two miles from Agra on the Delhi road, 
 occupying a rocky ridge, surrounded by a stone wall with 
 
242 MODERN INDIA 
 
 battlements and towers. The emperor intended these 
 palaces to be his summer residence, and was followed 
 there by many of the rich nobles of the court, who built 
 mansions and villas of corresponding size and splendor 
 to gratify him and their own vanity — but all its magnifi- 
 cence was wasted, strange to say. The city was built and 
 abandoned within fifty years. Perhaps Akbar became 
 tired of it, but the records tell us that it was impossible 
 to secure a water supply sufficient for the requirements 
 of the population and that the location was exceedingly 
 unhealthy because of malaria. Therefore the king and 
 the court, the officials of the government, with the clerks 
 and servants, the military garrison and the merchants 
 who supplied their wants, all packed up and moved away, 
 most of them going back to Agra, where they came from, 
 leaving the glorious marble palaces without tenants and 
 allowing them to crumble and decay. 
 
 Abandoned cities and citadels are not unusual in India. 
 I have already told you of one near Jeypore where even 
 a larger population were compelled to desert their homes 
 and business houses for similar reasons — the lack of a 
 sufficient water supply, and there are several others in 
 different parts of India. Some of them are in a fair state 
 of preservation, others are almost razed to the ground, 
 and their walls have been used as quarries for 
 building stone in the erection of other cities. But 
 nowhere can be found so grand, so costly and so ex- 
 tensive a group of empty and useless palaces as at Fat- 
 tehpur-Sikri. 
 
 The origin of the town, according to tradition, is quite 
 interesting. When Akbar was returning from one of his 
 military campaigns he camped at the foot of the hill and 
 learned that a wise and holy Brahmin named Shekh Selim 
 
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF BUILDINGS 243 
 
 Chishli, who resided in a cave among the rocks, exercised t-v 
 
 powerful influence among the Hindu deities. Akbar was 
 a Mohammedan, but of liberal mind, and had not the 
 slightest compunction about consulting with a clergyman 
 of another denomination. This was the more natural 
 because his favorite wife was a Hindu princess, daugh- 
 ter of the Maharaja of Jeypore, and she was extremely 
 anxious to have a child. She had given birth to twins 
 some years previous, but to her deep grief and that of the 
 emperor, they had died in infancy. 
 
 The holy man on the hill at Fattehpur was believed to 
 have tremendous influence with those deities who con- 
 trol the coming of babies into this great world ; hence 
 the emperor and his sultana visited Shekh Selim in his 
 rock retreat to solicit his interposition for the birth of 
 a son. Now, the hermit had a son only 6 months old, 
 who, the evening after the visit of the emperor, noticed 
 that his father's face wore a dejected expression. Hav- 
 ing never learned the use of his tongue, being but a few 
 months old, this precocious child naturally caused great 
 astonishment when, by a miracle, he sat up in his cradle 
 and in language that an adult would use inquired the 
 cause of anxiety. The old man answered : 
 
 "It is written in the stars, oh, my son, that the emperor 
 will never have an heir unless some other man will 
 sacrifice for him the life of his own heir, and surely in 
 this wicked and selfish world no one is capable of such 
 generosity and patriotism," 
 
 "If you will permit me, oh, my father," answered the 
 baby, "I will die in order that his majesty may be con- 
 soled," 
 
 The hermit explained that for such an act he could ac- 
 quire unlimited merit among the gods, whereupon the 
 
244 MODERN INDIA 
 
 obliging infant straightened its tiny limbs and expired. 
 Some months after the sultana gave birth to a boy, who 
 afterward became the Emperor Jehanghir, 
 
 Akbar, of course, was gratified and to show his ap- 
 preciation of the services of the hermit decided to make 
 the rocky ridge his summer capital. He summoned to 
 his aid all the architects and artists and contractors in 
 India, and a hundred thousand mechanics, stone cutters, 
 masons and decorators were kept busy for two scores 
 of years erecting the palaces, tombs and temples that now 
 testify with mute eloquence to the genius of the archi- 
 tects and builders of those days. It is shown 
 by the records that this enterprise cost the taxpayers of 
 India a hundred millions of dollars, and that did not 
 include the wages of the workmen, because most of 
 them were paid nothing. In those days almost every- 
 thing in the way of government public works was car- 
 ried on by forced labor. The king paid no wages. The 
 material was expensive. Very little wood was used. 
 The buildings are almost entirely of pure white marble 
 and red sandstone. They had neither doors nor win- 
 dows, but only open arches which were hung with cur- 
 tains to secure privacy, and light was admitted to the in- 
 terior through screens of marble, perforated in beauti- 
 ful designs. The entrance to the citadel is gained through 
 a gigantic gateway, one of the noblest portals ever 
 erected. It was intended as a triumphal arch to cele- 
 brate the victory of Akbar over the Afghans, and to 
 commemorate the conquest of Khandesh, and this is re- 
 corded in exquisite Persian characters upon its frontal 
 and sides. Compared with it the arches of Titus and 
 Constantine in Rome and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris 
 are clumsy piles of masonry. There is nothing to be 
 
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF BUILDINGS 245 
 
 compared with it anywhere in Europe, and the only 
 structure in India that resembles it in any way may be 
 found among the ruins in the neighborhood of Delhi. 
 
 Through this majestic portal you enter a quadrangle 
 about six hundred feet square, inclosed by a lofty cloister 
 which Bishop Heber pronounced the finest that was ever 
 erected. He declared that there was no other quadrangle 
 to be compared to it in size or proportions or beauty. In 
 the center of this wonderful inclosure is a building that 
 resembles a miniature temple. It is not large, and its 
 low roof and far projecting eaves give it the appearance 
 of a tropical bungalow. It is built of the purest marble. 
 No other material was used in its contraction. There is 
 not a nail or a screw or an ounce of metal of any kind 
 in its walls, and very little cement or mortar was used. 
 Each piece of stone fits the others so perfectly that there 
 was no need of bolts or anything to hold it in place. It 
 stands upon a pedestal four feet high and is crowned 
 with a low white dome of polished metal. The walls of 
 this wonderful building are pillars of marble inclosing 
 panels of the same material sawed in very thin slabs and 
 perforated in exquisite geometrical patterns. No two 
 panels are alike ; there is no duplication of design on the 
 pillars ; every column is different ; every capital and every 
 base is unique. We are told that it was customary in 
 the days of the Moguls to assign a section of a building 
 to an artist and allow him to exercise his skill and genius 
 without restriction, of course within certain limits. Not- 
 withstanding this diversity of design, the tomb of Shekh 
 Selim, of which I have attempted to give you an idea, 
 is an ideal of perfect harmony, and every stroke of the 
 chisel was as precise as if the artist had been engraving 
 a cameo. It was erected by Akbar and his Queen, 
 
246 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Luquina, as a token of gratitude to the old monk who 
 brouglit them an heir to their throne, but, unfortunately 
 this heir was an ungrateful chap and treated his father 
 and motlier very badly. 
 
 Another tomb of equal beauty but smaller dimensions, 
 is also a tribute of respect and affection. Under this 
 marble roof lies all that remains of that extraordinary 
 baby who gave his life to gratify the king. 
 
 Surrounding the quadrangle are the apartments of the 
 emperor, the residences of his wives and the offices in 
 which he conducted official business. They are all built of 
 marble of design and beauty similar to those within the 
 walls of the fort at Agra. One of them, known as the 
 Hall of Records, is now used for the accommodation 
 of visitors because there is no hotel and very little de- 
 mand for one. The only people who ever go to Fat- 
 tehpur Sikri are tourists, and they take their own bedding 
 and spread it on the marble floor. It is a long journey, 
 twenty-six miles by carriage, and it is not possible to 
 make it and return on the same day. 
 
 The Imperial Hall of Audience, where Akbar was ac- 
 customed to sit in his robes of state each day to receive 
 the petitions and administer justice to his subjects, is a 
 splendid pavilion of red sandstone with fifty-six columns 
 covered with elaborate carving in the Hindu style. Here 
 he received ambassadors from all parts of the earth be- 
 cause the glory of his court and the liberality of his pol- 
 icy gave him universal reputation. Here Jesuit mis- 
 sionaries gave him the seeds of the tobacco plant which 
 they brought from America, and within a few miles from 
 this place was grown the first tobacco ever produced in 
 India. The hookah, the big tobacco pipe, with a long 
 tube and a bowl of perfumed water for the smoke to 
 
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF BUILDINGS 247 
 
 pass through, is said to have been invented at Fattehpnr 
 Sikri by one of Akbar's engineers. 
 
 Connected by a marble corridor with the palace, and 
 also with the Hall of Public Audience, is a smaller pavil- 
 ion, where, according to the custom of the times, the 
 emperor was in the habit of receiving and conferring 
 with his ministers and other officials of his government, 
 with ambassadors and with strangers who sought his 
 presence from curiosity or business reasons. This diwan- 
 i-khas, or privy chamber, is pointed out as the place 
 where the emperor held his celebrated religious contro- 
 versies. We are told that for several years Jesuit mis- 
 sionaries were invited there and encouraged to explain 
 the dogmas and doctrines of their faith to the no- 
 bles and the learned pundits of the Indian Empire, often 
 in the presence of the Mogul, who took part in the discus- 
 sions. 
 
 When his majesty was tired of business and wanted 
 relaxation he ordered his servants to remove the silken 
 rug and cushions upon which he sat to a little marble 
 portico on the other side of the palace, where the pave- 
 ment of the court was laid in alternate squares of black 
 and white marble. This was known as the imperial pu- 
 chisi board, and we are told that his majesty played a 
 game resembling chess with beautiful slave girls dressed 
 in costume to represent the men upon the board. Here 
 he sat for hours with his antagonists, and was so proud 
 of his skill that expert puchisi players from all parts of 
 the empire were summoned to play with him. 
 
 At the other end of the inclosure is a large building 
 known as the mint, where the first rupees were coined. 
 They were cubes of gold, covered with artistic designs 
 and with Persian inscriptions reading "God is great. 
 
248 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Mighty is His Glory," The largest coin was called a 
 "lienseh" and was worth about $1,000 in our money. 
 And there were several other denominations, in the forms 
 of cubes, and they bore similar pious inscriptions. 
 
 The residences of the women of the court and the min- 
 isters and other high officials were of corresponding 
 splendor and beauty. There is nothing on our side of the 
 world or in Europe to compare with them in beauty 
 of design, costliness of material and lavishness of decora- 
 tion. The grandest palaces of the European capitals 
 are coarse and clumsy beside them, and the new library 
 at Washington, which we consider a model of architec- 
 tural perfection, can be compared to these gems of Hindu 
 architects as cotton duck to Brussels lace. 
 
 The palaces, temples and tombs in northern India are 
 unequaled examples of the architectural and decorative 
 arts. Nothing more beautiful or more costly has ever 
 been built by human hands than the residences and the 
 sepulchers of the Moguls, while their audience chambers, 
 their baths and pavilions are not surpassed, and are not 
 even equaled in any of the imperial capitals of Europe. 
 The oriental artists and architects of the Mohammedan 
 dynasties lavished money upon their homes and tombs 
 in the most generous manner, and the refinement of their 
 taste was equal to their extravagance. And where do 
 you suppose they obtained all the money for these build- 
 ings, which cost millions upon millions of dollars? The 
 architectural remains of Akbar and Shah Jehan, the two 
 most splendid of the Moguls, represent an expenditure 
 of several hundred millions, even though the labor of 
 construction was unpaid, and where did they get the 
 funds to pay for them ? Lieutenant Governor La Touche, 
 who has been collecting the records of the Mogul dynasty 
 
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF BUILDINGS 249 
 
 and having them carefully examined, discovers that their 
 revenues average about $100,000,000 a year for a hun- 
 dred years or more. In 1664 the land taxes amounted 
 to £26, 743 ,000, in 1665 they amounted to £24,056,000, 
 while in 1697, during the reign of the Mogul 
 Aurangzeb, they reached their highest figure, which was 
 £38,719,000.. With these funds they were required to 
 keep up their palaces, pay their officials, maintain their 
 armies and provide for the luxurious tastes of their 
 courtiers. 
 
XVI 
 
 THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF DELHI 
 
 Wherever the viceroy may hold court, wherever the 
 government may sit, Delhi always has been and always 
 will be the capital of India, for have not the prophets 
 foretold that the gilded marble palaces of the Moguls will 
 stand forever? Although Benares and Lucknow have 
 a larger population, Delhi is regarded as the metropolis 
 of Northern India, and in commerce and manufactures 
 stands fourth in the list of cities, Bombay, Calcutta and 
 Madras only surpassing it in wealth, industry and trade. 
 If you will look at the map for a moment you will notice 
 its unusually favorable location, both from a commercial 
 and military standpoint. It occupies a central place in 
 northern India, has railway connections with the fron- 
 tier and is equidistant from Bombay and Calcutta, the 
 principal ports of the empire. It receives raw materials 
 from the northern provinces and from mysterious regions 
 beyond the boundary. Its cunning artisans convert them 
 into finished products and ship them to all the markets of 
 the world. Being of great strategic importance, a large 
 military garrison is maintained there, and the walls of an 
 ancient fort shelter arsenals filled with guns and maga- 
 zines filled with ammunition, which may be promptly dis- 
 tributed by railway throughout the empire on demand. 
 It is the capital of one of the richest and most productive 
 provinces, the headquarters of various departments of 
 
 250 
 
THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF DELHI 251 
 
 the government, the residence of a large foreign colony, 
 civil, military and commercial ; it has the most learned 
 native pundits in India; it has extensive missionary sta- 
 tions and educational institutions, and is the center and fo- 
 cus of learning and all forms of activity. It is a pity and 
 a disgrace that Delhi has no good hotels. There are 
 two or three indifferent ones, badly built and badly kept. 
 They are about as good as the average in India, but ought 
 to be a great deal better, for if travelers could find com- 
 fortable places to stop Delhi might be made a popular re- 
 sort. 
 
 Travelers complain also of the pestiferous peddlers who 
 pursue them beyond the limit of patience. We were 
 advised by people who know India not to buy anything 
 until we reached Delhi, because that city has the best 
 shops and the best bazaars and produces the most attrac- 
 tive fabrics, jewelry and other articles which tourists like 
 to take home to their friends. And we found within a 
 few moments after our appearance there that we would 
 have no difficulty in obtaining as many things as we 
 wanted. We arrived late at night, and when we opened 
 the doors of our chambers the next morning we found 
 a crowd of clamoring merchants in the corridor w^ting 
 to seize us as we came out. And wherever we went — in 
 temples, palaces, parks and in the streets — they followed 
 us with their wares tied up in bundles and slung over 
 their backs. When we drove out to "The Ridge," where 
 the great battles took place during the mutiny of 1857, 
 to see a monument erected in memory of the victims of 
 Indian treachery, two enterprising merchants followed us 
 in a carriage and interrupted our meditations by offer- 
 ing silks, embroideries and brass work at prices which 
 they said were 20 per cent lower than we would have to 
 
252 MODERN INDIA 
 
 pay in the city. When we went into the dining-room of 
 the hotel we always had to pass through a throng of 
 these cormorants, who thrust jewelry, ivory carvings, 
 photographs, embroideries, cashmere shawls, silks and 
 other goods in our faces and begged us to buy them. As 
 we rode through the streets they actually ran at the sides 
 of the carriage, keeping pace with the horses until we 
 drove them off by brandishing parasols, umbrellas and 
 similar weapons of defense. We could not go to a 
 mosque or the museum without finding them lying in 
 wait for us, until wc became so exasperated that homicide 
 would have been justifiable. That is the experience of 
 every traveler, especially Americans, who are supposed to 
 be millionaires, and many of our fellow countrymen spend 
 their money so freely as to excite the avarice of the Delhi 
 tradesmen. And indeed it is true that their goods are 
 the most attractive, although their prices are higher than 
 you have to pay in the smaller towns of India, where 
 there is less demand. 
 
 The principal business section, called Chandni Chauk, 
 which means Silver street, has been frequently described 
 as one of the most picturesque and fascinating streets 
 in the world. It is about a mile long and seventy-five 
 feet broad. In the center are two rows of trees, between 
 which for several hundred years was an aqueduct, but 
 it is now filled and its banks are used as a pathway, the 
 principal promenade of the town. But a stranger cannot 
 walk there in peace, for within five minutes he is hemmed 
 in and his way is blocked by merchants, who rush out 
 from the shops on both sides with their hands filled 
 with samples of goods and business cards and in pigeon 
 English entreat him to stop and see what they have for 
 sale. Sometimes it is amusing when rival merchants 
 
THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF DELHI 253 
 
 grapple with each other in their frantic efforts to secure 
 customers, but such unwelcome attentions impair the 
 pleasure of a visit to Delhi. 
 
 The shops on both sides of the Chandni Chauk are full 
 of wonderful loom and metal work, jewelry, em- 
 broidery, enamel, rugs, hangings, brocades, shawls, leath- 
 er work, gems and carved ivory and wood. Delhi has al- 
 ways been famous for carvings, and examples of engrav- 
 ing on jade of priceless value are often shown. Some- 
 times a piece of jade can be found in a curio shop covered 
 with relief work which represents the labor of an accom- 
 plished artist for years. In the days of the Mogtils 
 these useless ornaments were very highly regarded. 
 Kings and rich nobles used to have engravers attached 
 to their households. Artists and their families were 
 always sure of a comfortable home and good living, hence 
 time was no object. It was not taken into consideration. 
 They were indifferent whether they spent five months or 
 five years in fashioning a block of ivory or engraving a 
 gem for their princely patrons. The greatest works of the 
 most accomplished artists of the Mogul period are now 
 nearly all in the possession of native princes and rich 
 Hindus, and if one comes into the market it is snapped up 
 instantly by collectors in Europe and the United States. 
 Some of the carved ivory is marvelous. An artist would 
 spend his entire life covering a tusk of an elephant with 
 carvings of marvelous delicacy and skill ; and even to-day 
 the ivory carvers of Delhi produce wonderful results and 
 sell them at prices that are absurdly small, considering 
 the labor they represent. 
 
 Akbar the Great, who sat upon the Mogul throne the 
 latter half of the sixteenth century, was a sensible man, 
 and endeavored to divert the skill and taste of the artisans 
 
254 MODERN INDIA 
 
 of his empire into more practical channels. Instead of 
 maintaining artists to carve ivory and jade he established 
 schools and workshops for the instruction of spinners, 
 weavers and embroiderers, and ofifcred high prices for 
 fine samples of shawls and other woolen fabrics, weapons, 
 pottery and similar useful articles. He purchased the 
 rich products of the looms for the imperial wardrobe 
 and induced the native princes to imitate his example. 
 He organized guilds among his workmen, and secured 
 the adoption of regulations which served to maintain a 
 high standard, and permitted none but perfect products 
 to be placed upon the market. 
 
 The descendants of the master workmen educated 
 under this policy are still living and following the trades 
 of their ancestors in Delhi, and there may be found the 
 finest gold and silver cloth and the most elaborate em- 
 broidery produced in the world. The coronation robe of 
 Queen Alexandra of England, which is said to have been 
 of surpassing richness and beauty, was woven and em- 
 broidered in a factory upon the Chandni Chauk, and the 
 merchant who made it is constantly receiving orders 
 from the different courts of Europe and from the lead- 
 ing dressmakers of London, Paris and Vienna. He told 
 us that Mrs. Leland Stanford had commissioned him to 
 furnish the museum of her university in California the 
 finest possible samples of different styles of Indian em- 
 broidery, and his workmen were then engaged in pro- 
 ducing them. Her contract, he said, amounted to more 
 than $60,000. Lady Curzon is his best customer, for 
 she not only orders all of the material for her state gowns 
 from him, but has brought him enough orders from the 
 ladies of the British court to keep his shop busy for five 
 years. He told us that Lady Curzon designed the corona- 
 
THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF DELHI 255 
 
 tion robe of Queen Alexandra ; he declared that she had 
 the rarest taste of any woman he knew, and that she was 
 the best dressed woman in the world — an opinion shared 
 by other good judges. 
 
 He spread upon the floor wonderful samples of the 
 skill and taste of his artists, brocades embroidered with 
 jewels for the ceremonial robes of native princes ; silks 
 and satins whose surface was concealed by patterns 
 wrought in gold and silver thread. And everything is 
 done by men. Women do not embroider in India. He 
 keeps eighty men embroiderers constantly employed, and 
 pays them an average of 18 cents a day. The most famous 
 of his artists, those who design as well as execute the 
 delicate and costly garnishings, the men who made the 
 coronation robe of the British queen, receive the munifi- 
 cent compensation of 42 cents a day. That is the maxi- 
 mum paid for such work. Apprentices who do the filUng 
 in and coarser work and have not yet acquired suffi- 
 cent skill and experience to undertake more important 
 tasks are paid 8 cents a day and work twelve hours for 
 that. 
 
 Delhi is the principal distributing point for the famous 
 Cashmere shawls which are woven of the hair of camels, 
 goats and sheep in the province of Cashmere, which lies 
 to the northward about 300 miles. They are brought 
 packed in panniers on the backs of camels. I was told 
 at Delhi that the foreign demand for Cashmere shawls 
 has almost entirely ceased, that a very few are shipped 
 from India nowadays because in Europe and America 
 they are no longer fashionable. Hence prices have gone 
 down, the weavers are dependent almost entirely upon the 
 local market of India, and one can obtain good shawls 
 for very low prices — about half what they formerly cost. 
 
256 MODERN INDIA 
 
 In northern India every Hindu must have a shawl ; it is 
 as necessary to him as a hat or a pair of boots to a citizen 
 of Chicago or New York, and it is customary to invest 
 a considerable part of the family fortune in shawls. They 
 are handed down from generation to generation, for they 
 never wear out ; the older they are the more valuable they 
 are considered. You often see a barefooted, bare-legged 
 peasant with his head wrapped in a Cashmere shawl that 
 would bring a thousand dollars in a London auction- 
 room. It is considered absolutely essential for every 
 young man to wear one of those beautiful fabrics, and 
 if there is none for him in the family he saves his earn- 
 ings and scrimps and borrows and begs from his rela- 
 tions until he gets enough money together to buy one. 
 Most of the shawls are of the Persian pattern familiar to 
 us. The groundwork is a solid color (white and yellow 
 seem to be the most popular), and there are a good many 
 of blue, green, orange and pink. A crowd of Hindus in 
 this part of the country suggest a kaleidoscope as they 
 move about with their brilliant colored shawls upon their 
 shoulders. 
 
 The amount and fineness of embroidery upon the bor- 
 der and in the corners of shawls give them their value, 
 and sometimes there is an elaborate design in the center. 
 The shawl itself is so fine that it can be drawn through 
 a finger ring or folded up and stowed away in an ordi- 
 nary pocket, but it has the warmth of a Scotch blanket. 
 Shawls are woven and embroidered in the homes of the 
 people of Cashmere, and are entirely of hand work. There 
 are no factories and no steam looms, and every stitch of 
 the decoration is made with an ordinary needle by the 
 fingers of a man. Women do not seem to have acquired 
 the accomplishment. 
 
THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF DELHI 257 
 
 A great deal of fun used to be made at the expense 
 of Queen Victoria, who was in the habit of sending a 
 Cashmere shawl whenever she was expected to make a 
 wedding present, and no doubt it was rather unusual for 
 her to persist in forcing unfashionable garments upon her 
 friends. But there is another way of looking at it. The 
 good queen was deeply interested in promoting the native 
 industries of India, and bought a large number of shawls 
 every year from the best artists in Cashmere. Up there 
 shawl-makers have reputations like painters and orators 
 with us, and if you would ask the question in Cashmere 
 any merchant would give you the names of the most 
 celebrated weavers and embroiderers. Queen Victoria 
 was their most regular and generous patron. She not 
 only purchased large numbers of shawls herself, but did 
 her best to bring them into fashion, both because she be- 
 lieved it was a sensible practice, and would advance the 
 prosperity of the heathen subjects in whom she took such 
 a deep interest. 
 
 The arts and industries of India are very old. Their 
 methods have been handed down from generation to gen- 
 eration, because sons are in the habit of following the 
 trades of fathers, and they are inclined to cling to the 
 same old patterns and the same old processes, regardless 
 of labor-saving devices and modern fashions. Many 
 people think this habit should be encouraged ; that what 
 may be termed the classic designs of the Hindus cannot 
 be improved upon, and it is certainly true that all purely 
 modern work is inferior. Lord and Lady Curzon have 
 shown deep interest in this subject. Lord Curzon has 
 used his official authority and the influence of the gov- 
 ernment to revive, restore and promote old native indus- 
 tries, and Lady Curzon has been an invaluable commercial 
 
258 MODERN INDIA 
 
 agent for the manufacturers of the higher class of fabrics 
 antl art objects in India. She has made many of them 
 fashionable in Calcutta and other Indian cities and in 
 London, Paris and the capitals of Europe, and so great is 
 her zeal that, with all her cares and responsibilities, and 
 the demands upon her time, she always has the leisure 
 to place orders for her friends and even for strangers 
 who address her, and to assist the silk weavers, embroid- 
 erers and other artists to adapt their designs and patterns 
 and fabrics to the requirements of modern fashions. She 
 wears nothing but Indian stuffs herself, and there is no 
 better dressed woman in the world. She keeps several 
 of the best artists in India busy with orders from her 
 friends, and is beginning to see the results of her efforts 
 in the revival of arts that w^ere almost forgotten. 
 
 The population of Delhi is about 208,000. The ma- 
 jority of the people, as in the other cities of northwestern 
 India, are Mohammedans, descendants of the invaders of 
 the middle ages, and the hostility between them and the 
 Brahmins is quite sharp. The city is surrounded by a 
 lofty wall six miles in circumference, which was built by 
 Shah Jehan, the greatest of the Moguls, some time about 
 1630, and the modern town begins its history at that date. 
 It has been the scene of many exciting events since then. 
 Several times it has been sacked and its inhabitants mas- 
 sacred. As late as 1739 the entire population w^as put to 
 the sword and everything of value within the walls was 
 carried off by the Persians. In the center of the city 
 still remains a portion of what was probably the most 
 splendid palace that was ever erected. It is surrounded 
 by a second wall inclosing an area 3,000 feet long by 
 1,500 feet wide, which was at one time filled with build- 
 ings of unique beauty and interest. They illustrated the 
 
THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF DELHI 259 
 
 imperial grandeur of the Moguls, whose style of living 
 was probably more splendid than that of any monarchs 
 of any nation before or since their time. Their extrava- 
 gance was unbounded. Their love of display has never 
 been surpassed, and while it is a question where they 
 obtained the enormous sums of money they squandered 
 in ceremonies and personal adornment, there is none as 
 to the accuracy of the descriptions given to them. The 
 fact that Nadir Shah, the Persian invader, was able to 
 carry away $300,000,000 in booty of jewels and gold, 
 silver and other portable articles of value when he sacked 
 Delhi in 1739, is of itself evidence that the stories of the 
 wealth and the splendor of the Moguls are not fables. It 
 is written in the history of Persia that the people of that 
 empire were exempt from taxation for three years be- 
 cause their king brought from Delhi enough money to pay 
 all the expenses of his government and his army during 
 that time. We are told that he stripped plates of gold 
 from the walls of the palace of Delhi and removed the 
 ceilings from the apartments because they were made of 
 silver, and the peacock throne of itself was of sufficient 
 value to pay the debts of a nation. 
 
 A considerable part of the palaces of the Moguls has 
 been destroyed by vandals or removed by the British au- 
 thorities in order to make room for ugly brick buildings 
 which are used as barracks and for the storage of arms, 
 ammunition and other military supplies. It is doubtful 
 whether they could have secured uglier designs and car- 
 ried them out with ruder workmanship. Writers upon 
 Indian history and architecture invariably devote a chap- 
 ter to this, national disgrace for which the viceroys in the 
 latter part of the nineteenth century were responsible, 
 and they denounce it as even worse than the devastation 
 
26o MODERN INDIA 
 
 committed by barbarian invaders. "Nadir Shah, Ahmed 
 Khan and the Maratha chiefs were content to strip the 
 buildings of their precious metals and the jeweled 
 thrones," exclaims one eminent writer. "To the govern- 
 ment of the present Empress of India was left the last 
 dregs of vandalism, which after the mutiny pulled down 
 these perfect monuments of Mogul art to make room for 
 the ugliest brick buildings from Simla to Ceylon. The 
 whole of the harem courts of the palace were swept off 
 the face of the earth to make way for a hideous British 
 barrack, without those who carried out this fearful piece 
 of vandalism thinking it even worth while to make a plan 
 of what they were destroying, or making any records of 
 the most splendid palace in the world. Of the public 
 parts of the palace, all that remain are the entrance hall, 
 the Nobut Khana, the Dewani Aum, the Dewani Khas 
 and the Rung Mahal, now used as a mess room, and one 
 or two small pavilions. They are the gems of the palace, 
 it is true, but without the courts and corridors connect- 
 ing them they lose all their meaning and more than half 
 their beauty. Being now situated in the midst of a Brit- 
 ish barrack yard, they look like precious stones torn from 
 their settings in some exquisite piece of oriental jeweler's 
 work and set at random in a bed of the commonest 
 plaster." 
 
 It is only fair to say that no one appreciates this situa- 
 tion more keenly than Lord Curzon, and while he is too 
 discreet a man to criticise the acts of his predecessors in 
 office, he has plans to restore the interior of the fort to 
 something like its original condition and has already taken 
 steps to tear down the ugly brick buildings that deface 
 the landscape. But something more is necessary. The 
 vandalism still continues in a small way. While we were 
 
THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF DELHI 261 
 
 being escorted through the beautiful buildings by a blithe 
 and gay young Irish soldier, I called his attention to sev- 
 eral spots in the wall where bits of precious stone — 
 carnelian, turquoise and agate — had been picked out and 
 carried away as relics. The wounds in the wall were 
 recent. It was perfectly apparent that the damage had 
 been done that very day, but he declared that there was 
 no way to prevent it ; that he was the only custodian of 
 the place ; that there were no guards ; that it was impos- 
 sible for him to be everywhere at once, and that it was 
 easy enough for tourists and other visitors to deface the 
 mosaics with their pocket knives in one of the palaces 
 while he was showing people through the others. 
 
 The mosaics which adorn the interior marble walls of 
 the palaces are considered incomparable. They are 
 claimed to be the most elaborate, the most costly and the 
 most perfect specimens of the art in existence. The de- 
 signs represents flowers, foliage, fruits, birds, beasts, 
 fishes and reptiles, carried out with precious stones in 
 the pure white marble with the skill and delicacy of a 
 Neapolitan cameo cutter, and it is said that they were 
 designed and done by Austin de Bordeaux, the French- 
 man who decorated the Taj Mahal, and it was a bad man 
 who did this beautiful work. History says that "after 
 defrauding several of the princes of Europe by means of 
 false gems, which he fabricated with great skill, he sought 
 refuge at the court of the Moguls, where he was received 
 with high favor and made his fortune." 
 
 The richest and the loveliest of the rooms in the palace 
 is the Diwan-i-Khas, or Hall of Private Audience, which 
 is built entirely of marble and originally had a silver 
 ceiling. The walls were once covered with gold, and in 
 the center stood the famous peacock throne. Over the 
 
262 MODERN INDIA 
 
 north and south entrances are written in flowing Persian 
 characters the following lines : 
 
 If there be a Paradise on Earth 
 It is This ! It is This ! It is This ! 
 
 The building was a masterpiece of refined fancy and 
 extravagance, and upon its decorations Austin de Bor- 
 deaux, whose work on the Taj Mahal pronounces him 
 to be one of the greatest artists that ever lived, con- 
 centrated the entire strength of his genius and lavished 
 the wealth of an empire. Mr. Tavernier, a French jew- 
 eler, who visited Delhi a few years after the palace was 
 finished, estimated the value of the decorations of this 
 one room at 27,000,000 francs. 
 
 One of the several thrones used by the Moguls on occa- 
 sions of ceremony was a stool eighteen inches high and 
 four feet in diameter chiseled out of a solid block of 
 natural crystal. M. Tavernier asserts that it was the 
 largest piece of crystal ever discovered, and that it was 
 without a flaw. It was shattered by the barbarians dur- 
 ing the invasion of the Marathas in 1789. But the pea- 
 cock throne, which stood in the room I have just de- 
 scribed, was even more wonderful, and stands as the most 
 extraordinary example of extravagance on record. 
 
 A description written at the time says : "It was so 
 called from its having the figures of two peacocks stand- 
 ing behind it, their tails being expanded, and the whole 
 so inlaid with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, 
 pearls and other precious stones of appropriate colors 
 as to represent life. The throne itself was six feet long 
 by five feet broad. It stood upon six massive feet, which, 
 like the body, were of solid gold, inlaid with rubies, 
 emeralds and diamonds. It was surrounded by a canopy 
 
THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF DELHI 263 
 
 of gold, supported by twelve pillars, all richly emblazoned 
 with costly gems, and a fringe of pearls ornamented the 
 borders of the canopy. Between the two peacocks stood a 
 figure of a parrot of the ordinary size carved out of a 
 single emerald. On either side of the throne stood an 
 umbrella, one of the emblems of royalty. They were 
 formed of crimson velvet, richly embroidered and fringed 
 with pearls. The handles were eight feet high, of solid 
 gold thickly studded with diamonds." 
 
 This throne, according to a medical gentleman named 
 Bernier, the writer whose description I have quoted, was 
 planned and executed under the direction of Austin de 
 Bordeaux. It was carried away by Nadir Shah to 
 Teheran in 1739, and what is left of it is still used by 
 the Shah of Persia on ceremonial occasions. The canopy, 
 the umbrellas, the emerald parrot and the peacocks have 
 long ago disappeared. 
 
 The same splendor, in more or less degree, was main- 
 tained throughout the entire palace during the reign of 
 the Moguls. The apartments of the emperor and those 
 of his wives, the harem, the baths, the public offices, the 
 quarters for his ministers, secretaries and attendants 
 were all built of similar materials and decorated in the 
 same style of magnificence. Some of the buildings are 
 allowed to remain empty for the pleasures of tourists ; 
 others are occupied for military purposes, and the Rung 
 Mahal, one of the most beautiful, formerly the residence 
 of the Mogul's favorite wife, is now used for a messroom 
 by the ofiicers of the garrison. A writer of the seventh 
 century who visited the place says : "It was more beau- 
 tiful than anything in the East that we know of." 
 
 At one end of the group of the buildings is the Moti 
 Majid, or Pearl Mosque, which answered to the private 
 
264 MODERN INDIA 
 
 chapel of the Moguls, and has been declared to be "the 
 daintiest building in all India." In grace, simplicity and 
 perfect proportions it cannot be surpassed. It is built of 
 the purest marble, richly traced with carving. 
 
 It is within the walls of this fort and among these 
 exquisite palaces that the Imperial durbar was held on 
 the ist of January, 1903, to proclaim formally the corona- 
 tion of King Edward VII., Emperor of India, and Lord 
 Curzon, with remarkable success, carried out his plan to 
 make the occasion one of extraordinary splendor. It 
 brought together for the first time all of the native princes 
 of India, who, in the presence of each other, renewed 
 their pledges of loyalty and offered their homage to the 
 throne. No spectacle of greater pomp and splendor has 
 ever been witnessed in Europe or Asia or any other part 
 of the world since the days of the Moguls. The peacock 
 throne could not be recovered for the occasion, but Lord 
 and Lady Curzon sat upon the platform where it formerly 
 stood, and there received the ruling chiefs, nobles and 
 princes from all the states and provinces of India. Lord 
 Curzon has been criticised severely in certain quarters for 
 the "barbaric splendor and barbaric extravagance of this 
 celebration," but people familiar with the political situa- 
 tion in India and the temper of the native princes have 
 not doubted for a moment the wisdom which inspired it 
 and the importance of its consequences. The oriental 
 mind is impressed more by splendor than by any other 
 influence, and has profound respect for ceremonials. 
 The Emperor of India, by the durbar, recognized those 
 racial peculiarities, and not only gratified them but made 
 himself a real personality to the native chiefs instead of 
 an abstract proposition. It has given the British power 
 a position that it never held before; it swept away jeal- 
 
THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF DELHI 265 
 
 ousies and brought together ruling princes who had 
 never seen each other until then. It broke down what 
 Lord Curzon calls "the water-tight compartment system 
 of India." 
 
 "Each province," he says, "each native state, is more 
 or less shut off by solid bulkheads from its neighbors. 
 The spread of railways and the relaxation of social re- 
 strictions are tending to break them down, but they are 
 still very strong. Princes who live in the south have 
 rarely ever in their lives seen or visited the states of the 
 north. Perhaps among the latter are chiefs who have 
 rarely ever left their homes. It cannot but be a good 
 thing that they should meet and get to know each other 
 and exchange ideas. To the East there is nothing 
 strange, but something familiar and even sacred," con- 
 tinued Lord Curzon, "in the practice that brings sov- 
 ereigns together with their people in ceremonies of 
 solemnity. Every sovereign in India did it in the old 
 days ; every chief in India does it now ; and the com- 
 munity of interest between the sovereign and his people, 
 to which such a function testifies and which it serves to 
 keep alive, is most vital and most important." 
 
 And the durbar demonstrated the wisdom of those who 
 planned it. The expense was quite large. The total dis- 
 bursements by the government were about $880,000, and 
 it is probable that an equal amount was expended by the 
 princes and other people who participated. That has 
 been the subject of severe criticism also, because the peo- 
 ple were only slowly recovering from the effect of an 
 awful famine. But there is another point of view. 
 Every farthing of those funds was spent in India and 
 represented wages paid to workmen employed in making 
 the preparations and carrying them into effect. No 
 
266 MODERN INDIA 
 
 money went out of the country. It all came out of the 
 pockets of the rich and was paid into the hands of the 
 poor. What the government and the native princes and 
 nobles expended in their splendid displays was paid to 
 working people who needed it, and by throwing this 
 large amount into circulation the entire country was 
 benefited. 
 
 The extravagance of the Viceroy and Lady Curzon in 
 their own personal arrangements has also been criticised, 
 and people complain that they might have done great 
 good with the immense sums expended in dress and enter- 
 tainment and display, but it is easy to construe these criti- 
 cisms into compliments, for everyone testifies that both the 
 viceroy and his beautiful American wife performed their 
 parts to perfection, and that no one could have appeared 
 with greater dignity and grace. Every detail of the affair 
 was appropriate and every item upon the programme was 
 carried out precisely as intended and desired. Lord and 
 Lady Curzon have the personal presence, the manners and 
 all the other qualities required for such occasions. 
 
 Dr. Francois Bernier, the French physician who vis- 
 ited the Mogul court in 1658, and gives us a graphic de- 
 scription of the durbar and Emperor Aurangzeb, who 
 reigned at that time, writes: "The king appeared upon 
 his throne splendidly appareled. His vest was of white 
 satin, flowered and raised with a very fine embroidery of 
 gold and silk. His turban was of cloth of gold, having 
 a fowl wrought upon it like a heron, whose foot was 
 covered with diamonds of an ordinary bigness and price, 
 with a great oriental topaz which may be said to be 
 matchless, shining like a little sun. A collar of long 
 pearls hung about his neck down to his stomach, after 
 the manner that some heathens wear their beads. His 
 
THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF DELHI 267 
 
 throne was supported by six pillars of massive gold set 
 with rubies, emeralds and diamonds. Beneath the throne 
 there appeared the great nobles, in splendid apparel, 
 standing upon a raised ground covered with a canopy of 
 purple with great golden fringes, and inclosed by a silver 
 balustrade. The pillars of the hall were hung with 
 tapestries of purple having the ground of gold, and for 
 the roof of the hall there was nothing but canopies of 
 flowered satin fastened with red silken cords that had 
 big tufts of silk mixed with the threads of gold hanging 
 on them. Below there was nothing to be seen but silken 
 tapestries, very rich and of extraordinary length and 
 breadth." 
 
XVII 
 
 THE TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF DELHI 
 
 Seven ancient ruined cities, representing successive 
 periods and dynasties from 2500 B. C. to 1600 A. D., 
 encumber the plains immediately surrounding the city of 
 Delhi, within a radius of eighteen or twenty miles ; and 
 you cannot go in any direction without passing through 
 the ruins of stupendous walls, ancient fortifications and 
 crumbling palaces, temples, mosques and tombs. Tradi- 
 tion makes the original Delhi the political and commercial 
 rival of Babylon, Nineveh, Memphis and Thebes, but the 
 modern town dates from 1638, the commencement of the 
 reign of the famous Mogul Shah Jehan, of whom I have 
 written so much in previous chapters. About eleven miles 
 from the city is a group of splendid ruins, some of the 
 most remarkable in the world, and a celebrated tower 
 known as the Kutab-Minar, one of the most important 
 architectural monuments in India. You reach it by the 
 Great Trunk Road of India, the most notable thorough- 
 fare in the empire, which has been the highway from the 
 mountains and northern provinces to the sacred River 
 Ganges from the beginning of time, and, notwithstand- 
 ing the construction of railroads, is to-day the great thor- 
 oughfare of Asia. If followed it will lead you through 
 Turkestan and Persia to Constantinople and Moscow. 
 Over this road came Tamerlane, the Tartar Napoleon, 
 with his victorious army, and Alexander the Great, and 
 
 268 
 
THE TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF DELHI 269 
 
 it has been trodden by the feet of successive invaders for 
 twenty or thirty centuries. To-day it leads to the Khyber 
 Pass, the only gateway between India and Afghanistan, 
 where the frontier is guarded by a tremendous force, and 
 no human being is allowed to go either way without per- 
 mits from the authorities of both governments. Long 
 caravans still cross the desert of middle Asia, enter and 
 leave India through this pass and follow the Grand Trunk 
 Road to the cities of the Ganges, It is always thronged 
 with pilgrims and commerce ; with trains of bullock carts, 
 caravans of camels and elephants, and thousands of pedes- 
 trians pass every milestone daily. Kipling describes them 
 and the road in "Kim" in more graphic language than 
 flows through my typewriter. In the neighborhood of 
 Delhi the Grand Trunk Road is like the Appian Way of 
 Rome, both sides being lined with the mausoleums of 
 kings, warriors and saints in various stages of decay and 
 dilapidation. And scattered among them are the ruins 
 of the palaces of supplanted dynasties which appeared and 
 vanished, arose and fell, one after another, in smoke and 
 blood ; with the clash of steel, the cries of victory and 
 shrieks of despair. 
 
 In the center of the court of the ancient mosque of 
 Kutbul Islam, which was originally built for a Hindu 
 temple in the tenth century, stands a wrought-iron col- 
 umn, one of the most curious things in India. It rises 
 23 feet 8 inches above the ground, and its base, which is 
 bulbous, is riveted to two stone slabs two feet below the 
 surface. Its diameter at the base is 16 feet 4 inches and 
 at the capital is 12 inches. It is a malleable forging of 
 pure iron, without alloy, and 7.66 specific gravity. Ac- 
 cording to the estimates of engineers, it weighs about 
 six tons, and it is remarkable that the Hindus at that age 
 
270 
 
 MODERN INDIA 
 
 could forge a bar of iron larger and heavier than was 
 ever forged in Europe until a very recent date. Its his- 
 tory is deeply cut upon its surface in Sanskrit letters. 
 The inscription tells us that it is "The Arm of Fame of 
 Raja Dhava," who subdued a nation named the Vahlikas, 
 "and obtained, with his own arm, undivided sovereignty 
 upon the earth for a long period." No date is given, but 
 the historians fix its erection about the year 319 or 320 
 A. D. This is the oldest and the most unique of all the 
 many memorials in India, and has been allowed to stand 
 about 1,700 years undisturbed. An old prophecy declared 
 that Hindu sovereigns would rule as long as the column 
 stood, and when the empire was invaded in 1206 and 
 Delhi became the capital of a Alohammedan empire, its 
 conqueror, Kutb-ud-Din (the Pole Star of the Faith), 
 originally a Turkish slave, defied it by allowing the pillar 
 to remain, but he converted the beautiful Hindu temple 
 which surrounded it into a Moslem mosque and ordered 
 his muezzins to proclaim the name of God and His 
 prophet from its roof, and to call the faithful to pray 
 within its walls. 
 
 This Hindu temple, which was converted into a mosque, 
 is still unrivaled for its gigantic arches and for the grace- 
 ful beauty of the tracery which decorated its walls. Even 
 in ruins it is a magnificent structure, and Lord Curzon 
 is to be thanked for directing its partial restoration at 
 government expense. The architectural treasures of 
 India are many, but there are none to spare, and it is 
 gratifying to find officials in authority who appreciate 
 the value of preserving those that remain for the bene- 
 fit of architectural and historical students. It it a pity 
 that the original Hindu carvings upon the columns cannot 
 be restored. There were originally not less than 1,200 
 
THE TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF DELHI 271 
 
 columns, and each was richly ornamented with peculiar 
 Hindu decorative designs. Some of them, in shadowy 
 corners, are still almost perfect, but unfortunately those 
 which are most conspicuous were shamefully defaced by 
 the Mohammedan conquerors, and we must rely upon 
 our imaginations to picture them as they were in their 
 original beauty. The walls of the building are of purplish 
 red standstone, of very fine grain, almost as fine as marble, 
 and age and exposure seem to have hardened it. 
 
 In one corner of the court of this great mosque rises 
 the Kutab Minar, a monument and tower of victory. It 
 is supposed to have been originally started by the Hindus 
 and completed by their Mohammedan conquerors. 
 Another tower, called the Alai-Minar, about 500 feet 
 distant, remains unfinished, and rises only eighty-seven 
 feet from the ground. Had it been finished as intended, 
 it would have been 500 feet high, or nearly as lofty as the 
 Washington monument. According to the inscription, it 
 was erected by Ala-din Khiji, who reigned from 1296 to 
 1 3 16, and remains as it stood at his death. For some rea- 
 son his successor never tried to complete it. 
 
 The Kutab Minar, the completed tower, is not only a 
 notable structure and one of the most perfect in the 
 world, second only in height to the Washington monu- 
 ment, but it is particularly notable for its geometrical 
 proportions. Its height, 238 feet, is exactly five times 
 the diameter of its base. It is divided into five stories 
 each tapering in perfect proportions and being divided by 
 projecting balconies or galleries. The first story, 95 feet 
 in height, consists of twenty-four faces in the form of 
 convex flutings, alternately semicircular and rectangular, 
 built of alternate courses of marble and red sandstone. 
 The second story is 51 feet high and the projections are 
 
272 MODERN INDIA 
 
 all semicircular; the third story is 41 feet and the pro- 
 jections are all rectangular; the fourth, 26 feet high, is a 
 plain cylinder, and the fifth or top story, 25 feet high, is 
 partly fluted and partly plain. The ifiean diameter of 
 each story is exactly one-fifth of its height, and the ma- 
 terial is alternate courses of marble and red sandstone, the 
 entire exterior surface being incrusted with inscriptions 
 from the Koran, sculptured in sharp relief. It has been 
 compared for beauty of design and perfection of propor- 
 tions to the Campanile at Florence, but that is convention- 
 al in every respect, while the Kutab Minar is unique. The 
 sculptures that cover its surface have been compared to 
 those upon the column of Trajan in Rome and the Col- 
 umn Vendome in Paris, but they are intended to relate the 
 military triumphs of the men in whose honor they were 
 erected, while the inscription upon the Kutab Minar is a 
 continuous recognition of the power and glory of God 
 and the virtues of Mahomet, His prophet. 
 
 Whichever way you look, whichever way you drive, in 
 that extraordinary place, you find artistic taste, the re- 
 ligious devotion, the love of conquest and the military 
 genius of the Mohammedans combined and perpetuated 
 in noble forms. The camel driver of Mecca, like the 
 founder of Christianity, was a teacher of peace and an 
 example of humility, but his followers have been famous 
 for their pride, their brilliant achievements, their audacity 
 and their martial violence and success. The fortresses 
 scattered over the plain bear testimony to their fighting 
 qualities, and are an expression of their authority and 
 power; their gilded palaces and jeweled thrones testify 
 to their luxurious taste and artistic sentiment, while the 
 massive mausoleums which arise in every direction testify 
 to their pride and their determination that posterity shall 
 
THE TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF DELHI 273 
 
 not forget their names. I have told you in a previous 
 chapter about the tomb of Humayun, the son of Baber 
 (the Lion of the Faith), who transmitted to a long line 
 of Moguls the blood of conquerors. But it is only one of 
 several noble examples of architecture and pretensions, 
 and as evidence of the human sympathies of the man 
 who built it, the tomb of his barber is near by. 
 
 About a mile across the plain is another group of still 
 more remarkable sepulchers, about seven or eight miles 
 from Delhi. They are surrounded by a grove of mighty 
 trees, whose boughs overhang a crumbling wall intended 
 to protect them. As we passed the portal we found our- 
 selves looking upon a large reservoir, or tank, as they 
 call them here, which long ago was blessed by Nizamu- 
 Din, one of the holiest and most renowned of the Brahmin 
 saints, so that none who swims in it is ever drowned. A 
 group of wan and hungry-looking priests were standing 
 there to receive us ; they live on backsheesh and sleep on 
 the cold marble floors of the tombs. No dinner bell ever 
 rings for them. They depend entirely upon charity, and 
 send out their chelas, or disciples, every morning to skir- 
 mish for food among the market men and people in the 
 neighborhood. While we stood talking to them a group 
 of six naked young men standing upon the cornice of a 
 temple attracted our attention by their violent gesticula- 
 tions, and then, one after another, plunged headlong, 
 fifty or sixty feet, into the waters of the pool. As they 
 reappeared upon the surface they swam to the marble 
 steps of the pavilion, shook themselves dry like dogs and 
 extended their hands for backsheesh. It was an entirely 
 new and rather startling form of entertainment, but we 
 learned that it was their way of making a living, and that 
 they are the descendants of the famous men and women 
 
274 MODERN INDIA 
 
 who occupy the wonderful tombs, and are permitted to 
 live among them and collect backsheesh from visitors as 
 they did from us. Several women were hanging around, 
 and half a dozen fierce-looking mullahs, or Mohammedan 
 priests, with their beards dyed a deep sCcirlet because the 
 prophet had red hair. 
 
 The most notable of the tombs, the "Hall of Sixty-four 
 Pillars," is an exquisite structure of white marble, where 
 rests Azizah Kokal Tash, foster brother of the great 
 Mogul Akbar. He was buried here in 1623, and around^ 
 him are the graves of his mother and eight of his brothers 
 and sisters. Another tomb of singular purity and beauty 
 is that of ]\ruhammud Shah, who was Alogul from 1719 
 to 1748 — the man whom Nadir Shah, the Persian, con- 
 quered and despoiled. By his side lie two of his wives 
 and several of his children. 
 
 The tomb of Jehanara, daughter of the great Emperor 
 Shah Jehan, is a gem of architecture, a dainty bungalow 
 of pure white marble. The roof is a low dome with 
 broad eaves, and the walls are slabs of thin marble per- 
 forated in geometric designs like the finest lace. The 
 inscription calls her "Heavenly Minded," and reminds us 
 that "God is the Resurrection and the Life ;" that it was 
 her wish that nothing but grass might cover her dust, 
 because "Such a pall alone was fit for the lowly dead," 
 and closes with a prayer for the soul of her father. Not- 
 withstanding her wishes, so expressed, the tomb cost 
 $300,000, but such sentiments, which appear upon nearly 
 all of the Mogul tombs, are not to be taken literally. The 
 inscription over the entrance to one of the grandest in 
 India, where lies "The Piercer of Battle Ranks," admits 
 that "However great and powerful man may be in the 
 presence of his fellow creatures ; however wide his power 
 

 3^ 
 
THE TEMPLES AND TOMBS OF DELHI 275 
 
 and influence, and however large his wealth, he is as 
 humble and as worthless as the smallest insect in the sight 
 of God." Human nature was the same among the Moguls 
 as it is to-day, and the men who were able to spend a 
 million or half a million dollars upon their sepulchers 
 could afford to throw in a few expressions of humility. 
 
 The most beautiful of the tombs is that of Amir 
 Khusrau, a poet who died at Delhi in 1315, the author 
 of ninety-eight poems, many of which are still in popular 
 use. He was known as "the Parrot of Hindustan," and 
 enjoyed the confidence and patronage of seven successive 
 Moguls. His fame is immortal. Lines he wrote are 
 still recited nightly in the coffee-houses and sung in the 
 harems of India, and women and girls and sentimental 
 young men come daily to lay fresh flowers upon his tomb. 
 
 In the center of Delhi and on the highest eminence of 
 the city stands the Jumma Musjid, almost unrivaled 
 among mosques. There is nothing elsewhere outside of 
 Constantinople that can compare with it, either in size 
 or splendor, and we are told that 10,000 workmen were 
 •employed upon it daily for six years. It was built by 
 Shah Jehan of red sandstone inlaid with white marble ; 
 is crowned with three splendid domes of white marble 
 striped with black, and at each angle of the courtyard 
 stands a gigantic minaret composed of alternate stripes 
 of marble and red sandstone. There are three stately 
 portals approached by flights of forty steps, the lowest of 
 which is 140 feet long. Through stately arches you are 
 led into a courtyard 450 feet square, inclosed by splendid 
 arcaded cloisters. In the center of the court is the usual 
 fountain basin, at which the worshipers perform their 
 ablutions, and at the eastern side, facing toward Mecca, 
 at the summit of a flight of marble steps, is the mosque. 
 
276 MODERN INDIA 
 
 260 feet long and 120 feet wide. The central archway 
 is eighty feet high. 
 
 Over in one corner of the cloisters is a reliquary 
 guarded by a squad of fierce-looking priests, which con- 
 tains some of the most precious relics of the prophet in 
 existence. They have a hair from his mustache, which is 
 red ; one of his slippers, the print of his foot in a stone, 
 two copies of portions of the Koran — one of them written 
 by his son-in-law. Imam Husain, very clear and well pre- 
 served, and the other by his grandson, Imam Hasan. 
 Both are very beautiful specimens of chirography, and 
 would have a high value for that reason alone, but ob- 
 tained especial sanctity because of the tradition that both 
 were written at the dictation of the Prophet himself, and 
 are among the oldest copies of the Koran in existence. 
 
XVIII 
 
 THUGS, FAKIRS, AND NAUTCH DANCERS 
 
 The most interesting classes among the many kinds of 
 priests, monks and other people, who make religion a 
 profession in India, are the thugs, fakirs and nautch 
 girls, who are supposed to devote their lives and talents 
 to the service of the gods. There are several kinds of 
 fakirs and other religious mendicants in India, about 
 live thousand in number, most of them being nomads, 
 wandering from city to city and temple to temple, de- 
 pendent entirely upon the charity of the faithful. They 
 reward those who serve them with various forms of bless- 
 ings ; give them advice concerning all the affairs of life 
 from the planting of their crops to the training of their 
 children. They claim supernatural powers to confer 
 good and invoke evil, and the curse of a fakir is the last 
 misfortunte that an honest Hindu cares to bring upon 
 himself, for it means a failure of his harvests, the death 
 of his cattle by disease, sickness in his family and bad 
 luck in everything that he undertakes. Hence these holy 
 men, who are familiars of the gods, and are believed 
 to spend most of their time communicating with them in 
 some mysterious way about the affairs of the world, are 
 able to command anything the people have to give, and 
 nobody would willingly cross their shadows or incur their 
 displeasure. The name is pronounced as if it were spelled 
 "fah-keer." 
 
 277 
 
278 ATODERN INDIA 
 
 These relictions mendicants go almost naked, usually 
 with nothing but the smallest possible breech clout around 
 their loins, which the police require them to wear; they 
 plaster their bodies with mud, ashes and filth ; they rub 
 clay, gum and other substances into their hair to give it 
 an uncouth appearance. Sometimes they wear their hair 
 in long braids hanging down their backs like the queue 
 of a Chinaman ; sometimes in short braids sticking out 
 in every direction like the wool of the pickaninnies down 
 South. Some of them have strings of beads around their 
 necks, others coils of rope round them. They never wear 
 hats and usually carry nothing but a small brass bowl, 
 in imitation of Buddha, which is the only property they 
 possess on earth. They are usually accompanied by a 
 youthful disciple, called a "chela," a boy of from lo to 15 
 years of age, who will become a fakir himself unless 
 something occurs to change his career. 
 
 Many of the fakirs endeavor to make themselves look 
 as hideous as possible. They sometimes whitewash their 
 faces like clowns in circuses ; paint lines upon their cheeks 
 and draw marks under their eyes to give them an in- 
 human appearance. At certain seasons of the year they 
 may clothe themselves in filthy rags for the time being 
 as an evidence of humility. Most of them are very thin 
 and spare of flesh, which is due to their long pilgrimages 
 and insufficient nourishment. They sleep wherever they 
 happen to be. They lie down on the roadside or beneath 
 a column of a temple, or under a cart, or in a stable. 
 Sometimes kindly disposed people give them beds, but 
 they have no regular habits ; they sleep when they are 
 sleepy, rest when they are tired and continue their 
 wanderings when they are refreshed. 
 
 About the time the people of the country are breakfast- 
 
THUGS, FAKIRS AND DANCERS 279 
 
 ing in the morning the chela starts out with the brass 
 bowl and begs from house to house until the bowl is filled 
 with food, when he returns to wherever his master is 
 waiting for him and they share its contents between them. 
 Again at noon and again at night the chela goes out on 
 similar foraging expeditions and conducts the commissary 
 department in that way. The fakir himself is supposed 
 never to beg; the gods he worships are expected to take 
 care of him, and if they do not send him food he goes 
 without it. It is a popular delusion that fakirs will not 
 accept alms from anyone for any purpose, for I have 
 considerable personal experience to the contrary. I have 
 offered money to hundreds of them and have never yet 
 had it refused. A fakir will snatch a penny as eagerly 
 as any" beggar you ever saw, and if the coin you offer is 
 smaller than he expects or desires he will show his dis- 
 approval in an unmistakable manner. 
 
 The larger number of fakirs are merely religious 
 tramps, worthless, useless impostors, living upon the 
 fears and superstitions of the people and doing more harm 
 than good. Others are without doubt earnest and sin- 
 cere ascetics, who believe that they are promoting the 
 welfare and happiness of their fellow men by depriving 
 themselves of everything that is necessary to happiness, 
 purifying their souls by privation and hardship and ob- 
 taining spiritual inspiration and light by continuous 
 meditation and prayer. ]\lany of these are fanatics, some 
 are epileptics, some are insane. They tmdergo self- 
 torture of the most horrible kinds and frequently prove 
 their sincerity by causing themselves to be buried alive, 
 by starving to death, or by posing themselves in un- 
 natural attitudes with their faces or their arms raised to 
 heaven until the sinews and muscles are benumbed or 
 
28o MODERN INDIA 
 
 paralyzed and they fall unconscious from exhaustion. 
 These are tests of purity and piety. Zealots frequently 
 enter temples and perform such feats for the admiration 
 of pilgrims and by-standcrs. Many are clairvoyants and 
 have the power of second sight. They hypnotize sub- 
 jects and go into trances themselves, in which condition 
 the soul is supposed to leave the body and visit the gods. 
 Some of the metaphysical phenomena are remarkable and 
 even startling. They cannot be explained. You have 
 doubtless read of the wonderful fakir, Ram Lai, who 
 appears in F. Marion Crawford's story of "Mr. Isaacs," 
 and there is a good deal concerning this class of people 
 in Rudyard Kipling's "Kim." Those two, by the way, 
 are universally considered the best stories of Indian life 
 ever written. You will perhaps remember also reading 
 of the astonishing performances of Mme. Blavatsky, who 
 visited the United States some years ago as the high 
 priestess of Theosophy. Her supernatural manifestations 
 attracted a great deal of attention at one time, but she was 
 finally exposed and denounced as a charlatan. 
 
 Among the higher class of fakirs are many extraor- 
 dinary men, profound scholars, accomplished linguists 
 and others whose knowledge of both the natural and 
 the occult sciences is amazing. I was told by one of the 
 highest officials of the Indian Empire of an extraordinary 
 feat performed for his benefit by one of these fakirs, who 
 in some mysterious way transferred himself several hun- 
 dred miles in a single night over a country where there 
 were no railroads, and never took the trouble to explain 
 how his journey was accomplished. 
 
 The best conjurers, magicians and palmists in India 
 are fakirs. Many of them tell fortunes from the lines 
 of the hand and from other signs with extraordinary ac- 
 
THUGS, FAKIRS AND DANCERS 281 
 
 curacy. Old residents who have come in contact with 
 this class relate astounding tales. While at Calcutta 
 a young lady at our hotel was incidentally informed by a 
 fortune-telling fakir she met accidentally in a Brahmin 
 temple that she would soon receive news that would 
 change all her plans and alter the course of her life, and 
 the next morning she received a cablegram from England 
 announcing the death of her father. If you get an old 
 resident started on such stories he will keep telling them 
 all night. 
 
 Of course you have read of the incredible and seem- 
 ingly impossible feats performed by Hindu magicians, of 
 whom the best and most skillful belong to the fakir class. 
 I have seen the "box trick," or "basket trick," as they call 
 it, in which a young man is tied up in a gunny sack and 
 locked up in a box, then at a signal a few mornents after 
 appears smiling at the entrance to your house, but I have 
 never found anyone who could explain how he escaped 
 from his prison. This was performed daily on the Mid- 
 way Plaisance at the World's Fair at Chicago and was 
 witnessed by thousands of people. And it is simple com- 
 pared with some of the doings of these fakirs. They 
 will take a mango, open it before you, remove the seeds, 
 plant them in a tub of earth, and a tree will grow and 
 bear fruit before your eyes within half an hour. Or, 
 what is even more wonderful, they will climb an invisible 
 rope in the open air as high as a house, vanish into space, 
 and then, a few minutes after, will come smiling around 
 the nearest street corner. Or, if that is not wonderful 
 enough, they will take an ordinary rope, whirl it around 
 their head, toss it into the air, and it will stand upright, 
 as if fastened to some invisible bar, so taut and firm that 
 a heavy man can climb it. 
 
282 MODERN IXDIA 
 
 These are a few of the wonderful things fakirs per- 
 form about tlic temples, and nobody has ever been able 
 to discover how they do it. People who begin an inquiry 
 usually abandon it and declare that the tricks are not- 
 done at all, that the spectators arc simply hypnotized and 
 imagine that they have seen what they afterward describe. 
 This explanation is entirely plausible. It is the only safe 
 one that can be given, and it is confirmed by other mani- 
 festations of hypnotic power that you would not believe 
 if I should describe them. Fakirs have hypnotized peo- 
 ple I know and have made them witness events and 
 spectacles which they afterward learned were transpiring, 
 at the very moment, five and six thousand miles away. 
 For example, a young gentleman, relating his experience, 
 declared that under the power of one of these men he 
 attended his brother's wedding in a London church and 
 wrote home an account of it that was so accurate in its 
 details that his family were convinced that he had come 
 all the way from India without letting them know and 
 had attended it secretly. 
 
 Many of the snake charmers to whom I referred in a 
 previous chapter are fakirs, devoted to gods whose spe- 
 cialties are snakes, and pious Hindus believe that the 
 deities they worship protect them from the venom of the 
 reptiles. Sometimes you can see one of them at a temple 
 deliberately permit his pets to sting him on the arm, and 
 he will show you the blood flowing. Taking a little 
 black stone from his pocket he will rub it over the wound 
 and then rub it upon the head of the snake. Then he 
 will rub the wound again, and again the head of the 
 snake, all the time muttering prayers, making passes with 
 his hands, bowing his body to the ground, and going 
 through other forms of worship, and when he has con- 
 
THUGS, FAKIRS AND DANCERS 283 
 
 eluded he will assure you that the bite of the snake has 
 been made harmless by the incantation. 
 
 I have never seen more remarkable contortionists than 
 the fakirs who can be always found about temples in 
 Benares, and frequently elsewhere. They are usually 
 very lean men, almost skeletons. As they wear no cloth- 
 ing, one can count their bones through the skin, but 
 their muscles and sinews are remarkably strong and sup- 
 ple. They twist themselves into the most extraordinary 
 shapes. No professional contortionist upon the vaude- 
 ville stage can compare with these religious mendicants, 
 who give exhibitions in the open air, or in the porticos 
 of the temples in honor of some god and call it worship. 
 They acquire the faculty of doing their feats by long and 
 tedious training under the instruction of older fakirs, 
 who are equally accomplished, and the performances are 
 actually considered worship, just as much as an organ 
 voluntary, the singing of a hymn, or a display of pulpit 
 eloquence in one of our churches. The more wonderful 
 their feats, the more acceptable to their gods, and they 
 go from city to city through all India, and from temple 
 to temple, twisting their bodies into unnatural shapes and 
 postures under the impression that they will thereby at- 
 tain a higher degree of holiness and exalt themselves in 
 the favor of heaven. They do not give exhibitions for 
 money. They cannot be hired for any price to appear 
 upon a public stage. Theatrical agents in London and 
 elsewhere have frequently tempted them with fortunes, 
 but they cannot be persuaded to display their gifts for 
 gain, or violate their caste and the traditions of their 
 profession. 
 
 There is a fearful sect of fakirs devoted to Siva and 
 to Bhairava, the god of lunacy, who associate with 
 
284 MODERN INDIA 
 
 evil spirits, ghouls and vampires, and practice hideous 
 rites of blood, lust and gluttony. They tear their flesh 
 with their finger-nails, slash themselves with knives, and 
 occasionally engage in a frantic dance from which they 
 die of exhaustion. 
 
 The nautches of India have received considerable at- 
 tention from many sources. They are the object of the 
 most earnest admonitions from missionaries and moral- 
 ists, and no doubt are a very bad lot, although they do not 
 look it, and are a recognized and respected profession 
 among the Hindus. They are consecrated to certain gods 
 soon after their birth ; they arc the brides of the impure 
 and obscene deities of the Hindu pantheon, and are at- 
 tached to their temples, receiving their support from the 
 collections of the priests or the permanent endowments, 
 often living under the temple roof and almost always 
 within the sacred premises. The amount of their in- 
 comes varies according to the wealth and the revenues of 
 the idol to which they were attached. They dance before 
 him daily and sing hymns in his honor. The ranks of 
 the nautch girls are sometimes recruited by the purchase 
 of children from poor parents, and by the dedication of 
 the daughters of pious Hindu families to that vocation, 
 just as in Christian countries daughters are consecrated 
 to the vocation of religion from the cradle and sons are 
 dedicated to the priesthood and ministry. Indeed it is 
 considered a high honor for the daughter of a Hindu 
 family to be received into a temple as a nautch. 
 
 They never marry and never retire. When they be- 
 come too old to dance they devote themselves to the train- 
 ing of their successors. They are taught to read and 
 write, to sing and dance, to embroider and play upon 
 various musical instruments. They are better educated 
 
THUGS, FAKIRS AND DANCERS 285 
 
 than any other class of Hindu women, and that largely 
 accounts for their attractions and their influence over 
 men. They have their own peculiar customs and rules, 
 similar to those of the geishas of Japan, and if a nautch 
 is so fortunate as to inherit property it goes to the temple 
 to which she belongs. This custom has become law by 
 the confirmation of the courts. No nautch can retain 
 any article of value without the consent of the priest in 
 charge of the temple to which she is attached, and those 
 who have received valuable gifts of jewels from their 
 admirers and lovers are often compelled to sur- 
 render them. On the other hand, they are furnished 
 comfortable homes, clothing and food, and are taken care 
 of all of their lives, just the same as religious devotees 
 belonging to any other sect. Notwithstanding their 
 notorious unchastity and immorality, no discredit attaches 
 to the profession, and the very vices for which they are 
 condemned are considered acts of duty, faith and worship, 
 although it seems almost incredible that a religious sect 
 will encourage gross immorality in its own temples. Yet 
 Hinduism has done worse things than that, and other 
 of its practices are even more censurable. 
 
 Bands of nautches are considered necessary appur- 
 tenances of the courts of native Hindu princes, although 
 they are never found in the palaces of Mohammedans. 
 They are brought forward upon all occasions of cere- 
 mony, religious, official and convivial. If the viceroy 
 visits the capital of one of the native states he is enter- 
 tained by their best performances. They have a place 
 on the programme at all celebrations of feast days ; they 
 appear at weddings and birthday anniversaries, and are 
 quite as important as an orchestra at one of our social 
 occasions at home. They are invited to the homes of 
 
286 MODERN INDIA 
 
 native frentlcmen on all great occasions and are treated 
 with the utmost deference and generosity. They are per- 
 mitted liberties and are accorded honors that would not 
 be granted to the wives and daughters of those who enter- 
 tain them, and stand on the same level as the Brahmin 
 priests, yet they are what we would call women of the 
 town, and receive visitors indiscriminately in the temples 
 and other sacred places, according to their pleasure and 
 whims. 
 
 A stranger in India finds it difficult to reconcile these 
 facts, but any resident will assure you of the truth. The 
 priests are said to encourage the attentions of rich young 
 Hindus because of the gifts of money and jewels they are 
 in the habit of showering upon nautches they admire, but 
 each girl is supposed to have a "steady" lover, upon 
 whom she bestows her aflfections for the time being. He 
 may be old or young, married or unmarried, rich or poor, 
 for as a rule it is to these women that a Hindu gentleman 
 turns for the companionship which his own home does 
 not supply. 
 
 There is a difference of opinion as to the beauty of the 
 nautches. It is purely a matter of taste. There is no rule 
 by which personal attractions may be measured, and 
 doubtless there may be beautiful women among them, 
 but, so far, I have never seen one. Their costumes are 
 usually very elaborate, the materials being of the rarest 
 and finest qualities and profusely embroidered, and their 
 jewels are usually costly. Their manners are gentle, re- 
 fined and modest ; they are perfectly self-possessed under 
 all circumstances, and, while their dancing would not be 
 attractive to the average American taste, it is not immod- 
 est, and consists of a succession of graceful gestures and 
 posturing which is supposed to have a definite meaning 
 
THUGS, FAKIRS AND DANCERS 287 
 
 and express sentiments and emotions. Most of the 
 dances are interpretations of poems, legends, stories of 
 the gods and heroes of Indian mythology. Educated 
 Hindus profess to be able to understand them, although 
 to a foreigner they are nothing more than meaningless 
 motions. I have asked the same question of several mis- 
 sionaries, but have never been able to discover a nautch 
 dancer who has abandoned her vocation, or has deserted 
 her temple, or has run away with a lover, or has been 
 reached in any way by the various missions for women in 
 India. They seem to be perfectly satisfied with their 
 present and their future. 
 
 The greatest good women missionaries have done in 
 India, I think, is in bringing modern medical science into 
 the homes of the natives. No man is ever admitted to the 
 zenanas, no matter what may happen, and thousands 
 upon thousands, yes, millions upon millions, of poor 
 creatures have suffered and died for lack of ordinary 
 medical attention because of the etiquette of caste. Amer- 
 ican women brought the first relief, graduates from med- 
 ical schools in Philadelphia, New York and Chicago, and 
 now there are women physicians attached to all of the 
 missions, and many of them are practicing independently 
 in the larger cities. They are highly respected and exert 
 a great influence. 
 
 Nizam-u-Din, one of the haliest of the Hindu saints, 
 lies in a tomb of marble lace work and embroidery near 
 Delhi ; as exquisite a bit of architecture as you can 
 imagine, so dainty in all its details that it ought to be the 
 sepulcher of a fairy queen instead of that of the founder 
 of the Thugs, the secret religious society of assassins 
 which was suppressed and practically exterminated by 
 the British authorities in the '6o's and '70's. He died in 
 
288 MODERN INDIA 
 
 1652. He was a fanatic who worshiped the goddess Kali, 
 the black wife of Siva, and believed that the removal of 
 unbelievers from the earth was what we call a Christian 
 duty. As Kali prohibited the shedding of blood, he . 
 trained his devotees to strangle their fellow beings with- 
 out violating that prohibition or leaving any traces of their 
 work, and sent out hundreds of professional murderers 
 over India to diminish the number of heretics for the 
 good and glory of the faith. No saint in the Hindu cal- 
 endar is more generally worshiped or more profoundly 
 revered unto the present day. His tomb is attended by 
 groups of Brahmins who place fresh flowers upon the 
 cenotaph every morning and cover it reverently with 
 Cashmere shawls of the finest texture and pieces of rare 
 embroidery. 
 
 India is the only country where crime was ever sys- 
 tematically carried on as a religious and legitimate occupa- 
 tion in the belief that it was right, for not only the Thugs, 
 but other professional murderers existed for centuries, 
 and still exist, although in greatly diminished numbers, 
 owing to the vigilance of the police ; not because they 
 have become converted from the error of their ways. 
 There are yet tribes of professional criminals who believe 
 that, in following the customs and the occupation of their 
 ancestors, they are acting in the only way that is right 
 and are serving the gods they worship. Criminal organ- 
 izations exist in nearly all the native states, and the gov- 
 ernment is just now making a special effort to stamp out 
 professional "dacoits," who are associated for the purpose 
 of highway robbery, cattle stealing and violence and carry 
 on marauding expeditions from their headquarters con- 
 tinuously. They are just as well organized and as thor- 
 oughly devoted to their business as the gangs of high- 
 
THUGS, FAKIRS AND DANCERS 289 
 
 waymen that used to make travel dangerous through Eu- 
 rope in the middle ages. And there are other criminal 
 organizations with which it is even more difficult to deal. 
 A recent report from the office of the home secre- 
 tary says: 
 
 "We ajl know that trades go by castes in India ; a fam- 
 ily of carpenters will be a family of carpenters a century 
 or five centuries hence, if they last so long ; so with grain 
 dealers, blacksmiths, leather-makers and every known 
 trade. If we keep this in mind when we speak of 'pro- 
 fessional criminals' we shall realize what the term really 
 means. It means that the members of a tribe whose an- 
 cestors were criminals from time immemorial are them- 
 selves destined by the use of the caste to commit crime, 
 and their descendants will be offenders against the law 
 till the whole tribe is exterminated or accounted for in the 
 manner of the Thugs. Therefore, when a man tells you 
 he is a badhak, or a kanjar, or a sonoria, he tells you, 
 what few Europeans ever thoroughly realize, that he is 
 an habitual and avowed offender against the law, and has 
 been so from the beginning and will be so to the end ; that 
 reform is impossible, for it is his trade, his caste — I may 
 almost say, his religion — to commit crime." 
 
 The Thugs were broken up by Captain Sleeman, a 
 brave and able British detective who succeeded in enter- 
 ing that assassination society and was initiated into its 
 terrible mysteries. A large number of the leaders were 
 executed from time to time, but the government, whose 
 policy is always to respect religious customs of the Hin- 
 dus, administered as little punishment as possible, and 
 "rounding up" all of the members of this cult, as ranch- 
 men would say, "corralled" them at the Town of Jabal- 
 pur, near the City of Allahabad, in northeastern India, 
 
290 MODERN INDIA 
 
 ■where they have since been under surveillance. Origi- 
 nally there were 2,500. but now only about half of that 
 number remain, who up to this date are not allowed to 
 leave without a permit the inclosure in which they are 
 kept. 
 
 One of the criminal tribes, called Barwars, numbers 
 about a thousand families and inhabits forty-eight vil- 
 lages in the district of Gonda, in the Province of Oudh, 
 not far from Delhi. They live quietly and honestly upon 
 their farms during the months of planting and harvest- 
 ing, but between crops they wander in small gangs over 
 distant parts of the country, robbing and plundering with 
 great courage and skill. They even despoil the temples 
 of the gods. The only places that are sacred to them are 
 the temple of Jaganath (Juggernaut), in the district of 
 Orissa, and the shrine of a certain Mohammedan martyr. 
 They have a regular organization under hereditary chiefs, 
 and if a member of the clan gives up thieving he is dis- 
 graced and excommunicated. The plunder is divided pro 
 rata, and a certain portion is set aside for their priests and 
 as offerings to their gods. 
 
 There is a similar clan of organized robbers and mur- 
 derers known as Sonoriaths, whose special business is to 
 steal cattle, and the Mina tribe, which lives in the district 
 of Gurgaon, on the frontier of the Punjab Province, has 
 2,000 members, given up entirely to robbery and murder. 
 They make no trouble at home. They are honest in their 
 dealings, peaceable, charitable, hospitable, and have con- 
 siderable wealth, but between crops the larger portion of 
 the men disappear from their homes and go into other 
 provinces for the purpose of robbery, burglary and other 
 forms of stealing. In the Agra Province are twenty-nine 
 different tribes who from time immemorial have made 
 
THUGS, FAKIRS AND DANCERS 29I 
 
 crime their regular occupation and, like all those men- 
 tioned, look upon it as not only a legitimate but a re- 
 ligious act ordered and approved by the deities they wor- 
 ship. 
 
 Special laws have been enacted for restraining these 
 castes or clans, and special police officers now exercise 
 supervision over them. Every man is required to register 
 at the police headquarters and receive a passport. He is 
 required to live within a certain district, and cannot 
 change his abode or leave its limits without permission. 
 If he does so he is arrested and imprisoned. The author- 
 ities believe that they have considerably reduced the 
 amount of crime committed by these clansmen, who 
 are too cunning and courageous to be entirely suppressed. 
 No amount of vigilance can prevent them from leaving 
 their villages and going off into other provinces for crim- 
 inal purposes, and the railways greatly facilitate their 
 movements. 
 
 Nevertheless, if you will examine the criminal statistics 
 of India you will be surprised at the small number of ar- 
 rests, trials and convictions for penal offenses. The fig- 
 ures demonstrate that the people are honest and law abid- 
 ing. There is less crime in India than in any other coun- 
 try in proportion to population, much less than in Eng- 
 land or the United States. Out of a population of 
 300,000,000 people during the ten years from 1892 
 to 1902 there was an annual average of 1,015,550 crim- 
 inal cases before the courts, and an average of 1,345,667 
 offenses against the criminal laws reported, while 870,665 
 persons were convicted of crime in 1902, with the follow- 
 ing penalties imposed : 
 
 Death 500 
 
2C)2 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Penal servitude i./O? 
 
 Imprisonment 175-795 
 
 Fines 628,092 
 
 Over two years' imprisonment 7^57^ 
 
 Between one and two years 39,067 
 
 Between fifteen days and one year 86,653 
 
 Under fifteen days 34,5 17 
 
 The following were the most serious crimes in 1902: 
 
 Arrests. Convictions. 
 
 Offenses against public peace 1*5,190 5,088 
 
 Murder 3,255 1,102 
 
 Assault 42,496 12,597 
 
 Dacoity or highway robbery 3,320 706 
 
 Cattle stealing 29,691 9.307 
 
 Ordinary theft 183,463 45,566 
 
 House-breaking 192,353 23,143 
 
 Vagrancy 25.212 18,877 
 
 Public nuisances 216,285 201,421 
 
 The following table will show the total daily average of 
 prisoners, men and women, serving sentences for penal 
 offenses in the prisons of India during the years named : 
 
 Men. Women. Total. 
 
 1892 93.061 
 
 1893 91.976 
 
 1894 92.236 
 
 1895 97.869 
 
 1896 100,406 
 
 1897 109,989 
 
 1898 103,517 
 
 1899 101,518 
 
 1900 114.854 
 
 I9OI 108,258 
 
 3.142 
 
 96,202 
 
 2,988 
 
 94,964 
 
 2,941 
 
 95.177 
 
 3.216 
 
 101,085 
 
 3.280 
 
 103.686 
 
 3.277 
 
 113.266 
 
 2,927 
 
 106,446 
 
 2.773 
 
 104.292 
 
 3.253 
 
 118,107 
 
 3,124 
 
 111,382 
 
THUGS, FAKIRS AND DANCERS 293 
 
 Those who are famihar with criminal statistics in the 
 United States and other countries, will, I am confident, 
 agree with me that this is a most remarkable record for 
 a population of 300,000,000, illiterate, superstitious, im- 
 pregnated with false ideas of honor and morality, and 
 packed so densely as the people of India are. The courts 
 of justice have reached a high standard ; the lower courts 
 are administered almost exclusively by natives ; the high- 
 er courts by English and natives together. No trial of 
 importance ever takes place except before a mixed court, 
 and usually the three great religions — Brahminism, Mo- 
 hammedanism and Christianity — are represented on the 
 bench. 
 
 One of the most difficult and delicate tasks of the Brit- 
 ish authorities has been to prevent infanticide, the murder 
 of girl infants, because from time immemorial among all 
 the races of India it has been practiced openly and with- 
 out restraint and in many sections as a religious duty. 
 And what has made it more difficult, it prevailed most ex- 
 tensively among the families of the highest rank, and 
 among the natives, communities and provinces which 
 were most loyal to the British crown. For example, the 
 Rajput?, of whom I have written at length in a previous 
 chapter, are the chivalry of India. They trace their de- 
 scent from the gods, and are proud of their nobility and 
 their honor, yet it has been the custom among them as far 
 back as traditions run, to strangle more than half their 
 girl babies at birth, and until this was stopped the rec- 
 ords showed numbers of villages where there was not a 
 single girl, and where there never had been one within 
 the memory of man. As late as the census of 1869 seven 
 villages were reported with 104 boys and one girl, twen- 
 ty-three villages with 284 boys and twenty-three girls 
 
294 MODERN INDIA 
 
 and many others in similar proportions. The statistics of 
 the recent census of 1901, by the disparity between the 
 sexes, show that this crime has not yet been stamped 
 out. In the Rajputana Province, for example, there are 
 2,447,401 boys to 1,397,911 girls, and throughout the en- 
 tire population of India there are 72,506,661 boys to 49,- 
 516,381 girls. Among the Hindus of all ages there are 
 105,163,345 men to 101,945,387 women, and among the 
 Sikhs, who also strangle their children, there are 1,241,- 
 543 men to 950.823 women. Among the Buddhists, the 
 Jains and other religions the ratio between the sexes was 
 more even. 
 
 Sir John Strachy, in his admirable book upon India, 
 says : "These people have gone on killing their children 
 generation after generation because their forefathers did 
 so before them, not only without a thought that there is 
 anything criminal in the practice, but with the conviction 
 that it is right. There can be little doubt that if vigilance 
 were relaxed the custom would before long become as 
 prevalent as ever." The measures taken by the govern- 
 ment have been radical and stringent. A system of regis- 
 tration of births and deaths was provided by an act passed 
 in 1870, with constant inspection and frequent enumera- 
 tion of children among the suspected classes, and no ef- 
 forts were spared to convince them that the government 
 had finally resolved to prevent the practice and in doing 
 so treated it as murder. 
 
XIX 
 
 SIMLA AND THE PUNJAB 
 
 At Delhi the railway forks. One branch runs on to the 
 frontier of Afghanistan via Lahore and Peshawur, and 
 the other via Umballa, an important military post, to 
 Simla, the summer capital and sanitarium of India. Be- 
 cause of the climate there must be two capitals. From 
 October to April the viceroy occupies the government 
 house at Calcutta with the civil and military authorities 
 around him, but as soon as the summer heat sets in the 
 whole administration, civil, military and judicial, removes 
 to Simla, and everybody follows, foreign consuls, bankers, 
 merchants, lawyers, butchers, bakers and candlestick 
 makers, hotel and boardinghouse keepers, with their serv- 
 ants, coachmen and horses. The commander-in-chief of 
 the army, the adjutant general and all the heads of the 
 other departments with their clerks take their books and 
 records along with them. The winter population of 
 Simla is about 15,000; the summer population reaches 
 30,000. The exodus lasts about a month, during which 
 time every railway train going north is crowded and 
 every extra car that can be spared is borrowed from the 
 other railways. The last of October the migration is re- 
 versed and everybody returns to Calcutta. This has been 
 going on for nearly fifty years. The journey to Umballa 
 is made by rail and thence by "dak-gherries," a sort of 
 covered democrat wagon, "mailtongas," a species of cart, 
 
 295 
 
296 MODERN INDIA 
 
 bullock carts, army wagons and carriages of every size 
 and description, while the luggage is brought up the hills 
 in various kinds of conveyance, much of it on the heads 
 of coolies, both women and men. The distance, fifty- 
 seven miles by the highway, is all uphill, but can be made 
 by an ordinary team in twelve hours. 
 
 Long experience has taught the government officials 
 how to make this removal in a scientific manner, and the 
 records are arranged for easy transportation. The vice- 
 roy has his own outfit, and when the word is given the 
 transfer takes place \vithout the slightest difficulty or con- 
 fusion. A public functionary leaves his papers at his 
 desk, puts on his hat and walks out of his office at Cal- 
 cutta ; three days later he walks into his office at Simla, 
 hangs his hat on a peg behind the door and sits down at 
 his desk with the same papers lying in the same positions 
 before him, and business goes on with the interruption of 
 only three or four days at most. The migration makes 
 no more difference to the administration than the revolu- 
 tions of the earth. Formerly the various offices were 
 scattered over all parts of Simla, but they have been 
 gradually concentrated in blocks of handsome buildings 
 constructed at a cost of several millions of dollars. The 
 home secretary, the department of public works, the 
 finance and revenue departments, the secretary of agri- 
 culture, the postmaster general and the secretary of war, 
 each has quite as good an office for himself and his clerks 
 as he occupies at Calcutta. There is a courthouse, a law 
 library, a theatre and opera house, a number of clubs and 
 churches, for the archbishop and the clergy follow their 
 flocks, and the Calcutta merchants come along with their 
 clerks and merchandise to supply the wants of their cus- 
 
SIMLA AND THE PUNJAB 297 
 
 tomers. It is a remarkable migration of a great govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Although absolutely necessary for their health, and 
 that of their families, it is rather expensive for govern- 
 ment employes, or civil servants, as they are called in 
 India, to keep up two establishments, one in Simla and 
 one in Calcutta. But they get the benefit of the stimu- 
 lating atmosphere of the hills and escape the perpetual 
 Turkish bath that is called summer in Calcutta. Many 
 of the higher officials, merchants, bankers, society people 
 and others have bungalows at Simla furnished like our 
 summer cottages at home. They extend over a long 
 ridge, with beautiful grounds around them. It is fully 
 six miles from one end of the town to the other, and the 
 principal street is more than five miles long. The houses 
 are built upon terraces up and down the slope, with one 
 of the most beautiful panoramas of mountain scenery that 
 can be imagined spread out before them. Deep valleys, 
 rocky ravines and gorges break the mountainsides, which 
 are clothed with forests of oak and other beautiful trees, 
 while the background is a crescent of snowy peaks rising 
 range above range against the azure sky. Many people 
 live in tents, particularly the military families, and make 
 themselves exceedingly comfortable. Simla is quite cold 
 in winter, being 7,084 feet above the sea and situated on 
 the thirty-second parallel of north latitude, about the 
 same as Charleston, S. C, but in summer the climate is 
 very fine. 
 
 The viceroy occupies a chateau called the Viceregal 
 Lodge, perched upon a hill overlooking the town, and 
 from his porches commands as grand a mountain land- 
 scape as you could wish to see. The Viceregal Lodge, 
 like the government-house in Calcutta, was designed es- 
 
298 MODERN INDIA 
 
 pccially for its purpose and is arranged for entertain- 
 ments upon a broad scale. The vice-queen takes the lead 
 in social life, and no woman in that position has ever 
 been more competent than Lady Curzon. There is really 
 more society at Simla than in Calcutta. It is the Newport 
 of India, but fortunately for the health of those who 
 participate, it is mostly out of doors. The military ele- 
 ment is large enough to give it an athletic and sporting 
 character, and to the girls who are popular a summer 
 at Simla is one prolonged picnic. There are races, polo, 
 tennis, golf, drives, rides, walks, garden parties and all 
 sorts of afternoon and morning functions. F. Marion 
 Crawford describes the gayeties of Simla in ''Mr. Isaacs," 
 the first and best novel he ever wrote, and gives a graphic 
 account of a polo match in which his hero was knocked 
 off his horse and had his head bathed by the young lady 
 he was in love with. Kipling has given us a succession 
 of pictures of Simla society, and no novel of Indian life 
 is without a chapter or two on it, because it is really the 
 most interesting place in all the empire. 
 
 If you want to get a better idea of the place and its 
 attractions than I can give, read "Mr. Isaacs." Many of 
 its incidents are drawn from life, and the hero is a Per- 
 sian Jew of Delhi, named Jacobs, whose business is to 
 sell precious stones to the native princes. Crawford used 
 to spend his summers at Simla when he was a reporter 
 for the Allahabad Pioneer, and made Jacobs's acquaint- 
 ance there. His Indian experiences are very interesting, 
 and he tells them as well as he writes. When he was 
 quite a young man he went to India as private secretary 
 for an Englishman of importance who died over there 
 and left him stranded. Having failed to obtain employ- 
 ment and having reached the bottom of his purse, he de- 
 
SIMLA AND THE PUNJAB 299 
 
 cided in desperation to enlist as a private soldier in the 
 army, and was looking through the papers for the loca- 
 tion of the recruiting office when his eye was attracted 
 by an advertisement from the Allahabad Pioneer, which 
 wanted a reporter. Although he had never done any 
 literary work, he decided to make a dash for it, and be- 
 came one of the most successful and influential journalists 
 in India until his career was broken in upon by the suc- 
 cess of "Mr. Isaccs," his first novel, which was published 
 in England and turned his pen from facts to fiction. 
 
 The railway journey from Delhi to Lahore is not ex- 
 citing, although it passes through a section of great his- 
 torical interest which has been fought over by contending 
 armies and races for more than 3,000 years. Several of 
 the most important battles in India occurred along the 
 right of way, and they changed the dynasties and re- 
 ligions of the empire, but the plains tell no tales and show 
 no signs of the events they have witnessed. Everybody 
 who has read Kipling's stories will be interested in Um- 
 balla, although it is nothing but an important military 
 post and railway junction. He tells you about it in 
 "Kim," and several of his army stories are laid there. 
 Sirhind, thirty-five miles beyond, was formerly one of the 
 most flourishing cities in the Mogul Empire, and for a 
 radius of several miles around it the earth is covered with 
 ruins. It was the scene of successive struggles between 
 the Hindus and the Sikhs for several centuries, and even 
 to this day every Sikh who passes through Sirhind picks 
 up and carries away a brick, which he throws into the 
 first river he comes to. In hope that in time the detested 
 city will utterly disappear from the face of the earth. Sir- 
 hind is the headquarters of American Presbyterian mis- 
 sionary work in the Punjab, as that part of India is called, 
 
300 
 
 MODERN INDIA 
 
 and the headquarters of the larp^cst irris:;:ation system in 
 the world, which supplies water to more than 6,000,000 
 acres of land. 
 
 Just before reaching Lahore we passed through Am-- 
 ritsar, a city which is famous for many things, and is the 
 capital of the Sikhs, a religious sect bound together by 
 the ties of faith and race and military discipline. They 
 represent a Hindu heresy led by a reformer named Nanak 
 Shah, who was born at Lahore in 1469 and preached a 
 reformation against idolatry, caste, demon worship and 
 other doctrines of the Brahmins, His theories and ser- 
 mons are embraced in a volume known as the "Granth," 
 the Sikh Bible, which teaches the highest standard of 
 morality, purity and courage, and appeals especially to 
 the nobler northern races of India. His followers, who 
 were known as Sikhs, were compelled to fight for their 
 faith, and for that reason were organized upon a military 
 basis. Their leaders were warlike men, and when the 
 Mogul power began to decay they struggled with the 
 Afghans for supremacy in northern India. They have 
 ever since been renowned for their fighting qualities ; 
 have always been loyal to British authority ; for fifty 
 years have furnished bodyguards for the Viceroy of In- 
 dia, the governors of Bombay, Bengal and other prov- 
 inces, and so much confidence is placed in their coolness, 
 courage, honesty, judgment and tact that they are em- 
 ployed as policemen in all the British colonies of the East. 
 You find them everywhere from Tien-Tsin to the Red 
 Sea. They are men of unusual stature, with fine heads 
 and faces, full beards, serious disposition and military 
 airs. They are the only professional fighters in the world. 
 You seldom find them in any other business, and their 
 
SIMLA AND THE PUNJAB 301 
 
 admirers declare that no Sikh was ever convicted of cow- 
 ardice or disloyalty. 
 
 Amritsar is their headquarters, their religious center 
 and their sacred city. Their temples are more like Prot- 
 estant churches than those of other oriental faiths. They 
 have no idols or altars, but meet once a week for prayer 
 and praise. Their preacher reads passages from the 
 "Granth" and prays to their God, who may be reached 
 through the intercession of Nanak Shah, his prophet and 
 their redeemer. They sing hymns similar to those used 
 in Protestant worship and celebrate communion by par- 
 taking of wafers of unleavened bread. Their congrega- 
 tions do not object to the presence of strangers, but us- 
 ually invite them to participate in the worship. 
 
 The great attraction of Amritsar is "The Golden Tem- 
 ple" of the Sikhs which stands in the middle of a lake 
 known as "The Pool of Immortality," It is not a large 
 building, being only fifty-three feet square, but is very 
 beautiful and the entire exterior is covered with plates of 
 gold. In the treasury is the original copy of the "Granth" 
 and a large number of valuable jewels which have been 
 collected for several centuries. Among them is one of 
 the most valuable strings of pearls ever collected. 
 
 The Punjab is a province of northern India directly 
 south of Cashmere, east of Afghanistan and west of 
 Thibet. It is one of the most enterprising, progressive 
 and prosperous provinces, and, being situated in the tem- 
 perate zone, the character of the inhabitants partakes of 
 the climate. There is a great difference, morally, phys- 
 ically and intellectually, between people who live in the 
 tropics and those who live in the temperate zone. This 
 rule applies to all the world, and nowhere more than in 
 India. Punjab means "five rivers," and is formed of the 
 
302 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Hindu words "punj ab." The country is watered by the 
 Sutlej, the Beas, the Rabi, the Chenab and the Jhelum 
 rivers, five great streams, which flow into the Indus, and 
 thence to the Arabian Sea. Speaking generally, the 
 Punjab is a vast plain of alluvial formation, and the east- 
 ern half of it is very fertile. The western part requires 
 irrigation, the rainfall being only a few inches a year, but 
 there is always plenty of water for irrigation in the rivers. 
 They are fed by the melting snows in the Himalayas. 
 
 The City of Lahore, the capital of the Punjab, is a 
 stirring, modern town, a railway center, with extensive 
 workshops employing several thousand men, and early in 
 the nineteenth century, under the administration of Ran- 
 jit Singh, one of the greatest of the maharajas, it 
 acquired great commercial importance, but the buildings 
 he erected are cheap and tawdry beside the exquisite 
 architectural monuments of Akbar, Shah Jehan and other 
 Moguls. The population of Punjab province by the cen- 
 sus of 1901 is 20,330,339, and the Mohammedans are in 
 the majority, having 10,825,698 of the inhabitants. The 
 Sikhs are a very important class and number 1,517,019. 
 There are only 2,200,000 Sikhs in all India, and those 
 who do not live in this province are serving as soldiers 
 elsewhere. The population of Lahore is 202,000, an in- 
 crease of 26,000 during the last ten years. 
 
 When you come into a Mohammedan country you al- 
 ways find tiles. Somehow or another they are associated 
 with Islam. The Moors were the best tilemakers that 
 ever lived, and gave that art to Spain. In ]\Iorocco to- 
 day the best modern tiles are found. The tiles of Con- 
 stantinople, Damascus, Smyrna, Jerusalem and other 
 cities of Syria and the Ottoman Empire are superior to 
 any you can find outside of Morocco; and throughout 
 
SIMLA AND THE PUNJAB 303 
 
 Bokhara, Turkestan, Afghanistan and the other Moslem 
 countries of Asia tilemaking has been practiced for ages. 
 In their invasion of India the Afghans and Tartars 
 brought it with them, and, although the art did not re- 
 main permanently so far beyond the border as Delhi, you 
 find it there, in the rest of the Punjab and wherever Mo- 
 hammedans are in the majority. 
 
 Lahore is an ancient city and has many interesting old 
 buildings. The city itself lies upon the ruins of several 
 predecessors which were destroyed by invaders during 
 the last twelve or fifteen centuries. There are some fine 
 old mosques and an ancient palace or two, but compared 
 with other Indian capitals it lacks interest. The most 
 beautiful and attractive of all its buildings is the tomb of 
 Anar Kali (which means pomegranate blossom), a lady 
 of the Emperor Akbar's harem, who became the sweet- 
 heart of Selim, his son. She was buried alive by order 
 of the jealous father and husband for committing an un- 
 pardonable offense, and when Selim became the Emperor 
 Jehanjir he erected this wonderful tomb to her memory. 
 It is of white marble, and the carvings and mosaic work 
 are very fine. In striking contrast with it is a vulgar, 
 fantastic temple covered inside and out with convex mir- 
 rors. In the center of the rotunda, upon a raised plat- 
 form is carved a lotus flower, and around it are eleven 
 similar platforms of smaller size. The guides tell you 
 that upon these platforms the body of Ranjit Singh, the 
 greatest of the maharajas, was burned in 1839, and his 
 eleven wives were burned alive upon the platforms 
 around him. 
 
 The Emperor Jehanjir is buried in a magnificent mau- 
 soleum in the center of a walled garden on the bank of 
 the river five miles from Lahore, but his tomb does not 
 
304 MODERN INDIA 
 
 compare in beauty or splendor witli those at Agra and 
 Delhi. There is a garden called "The Abode of Love," 
 about six miles out of town, where everybody drives in 
 the afternoon. It was laid out by the Mogul Shah Jehan 
 in 1637 for a recreation ground for himself and his sul- 
 tanas when he visited this part of the empire, and in- 
 cludes about eighty acres of flowers and foliage plants. 
 
 Modern Lahore is much more interesting than the 
 ancient city. The European quarter covers a large area. 
 The principal street is three miles long, shaded with 
 splendid trees, and on each side of it are the public offices, 
 churches, schools, hotels, clubs and the residences of rich 
 people, which are nearly all commodious bungalows sur- 
 rounded by groves and gardens. The native city is a 
 busy bazaar, densely packed with gayly dressed types of 
 all the races of Asia, and is full of dust, filth and smells. 
 But the people are interesting and the colors are gay. It 
 is sometimes almost impossible to pass through the 
 crowds that fill the native streets, and whoever enters 
 there must expect to be jostled sometimes by ugly-look- 
 ing persons. 
 
 The fort is the center of activity. The ancient citadel 
 has been adapted to modern uses and conveniences at the 
 expense of its former splendor. The palaces and 
 rposques, the baths and halls of audience of the Moguls 
 have been converted into barracks, arsenals and store- 
 rooms, and their decorations have been covered with 
 whitewash. The only object of interest that has been left 
 is an armory containing a fine collection of ancient Indian 
 weapons. But, although the city has lost its medieval 
 picturesqueness, it has gained in utility, and has become 
 the most important educational and industrial center of 
 northern India. The university and its numerous affili- 
 
KIM." THK CHELA, AND THE OLD LA^L\ WHO SOUGHT 
 THE WAY AM) THK TRl'TH AND THE LIGHT 
 
SIMLA AND THE PUNJAB 305 
 
 ated schools, the law college, the college of oriental lan- 
 guages and the manual training school are all well attend- 
 ed and important, and the school of art and industry en- 
 joys the reputation of being the most useful and the best- 
 managed institution of the kind in the East, probably in 
 all Asia, which is due to the zeal and ability of J. L. Kip- 
 ling, father of Rudyard Kipling, who has spent the 
 greater part of his life in making it what it is. He was 
 also the founder of the museum or "Wonder-House," as 
 the natives call it. It has the finest collection of Indian 
 arts and industries in existence except that in South Ken- 
 sington Museum, which Mr. Kipling also collected and 
 installed. It was under the carriage of one of the great 
 old-fashioned cannon that stand in front of this museum 
 that "Kim" first encountered the aged Llama, and Kip- 
 ling's father is the wise man who kept the "Wonder- 
 House" and gave the weary pilgrim the knowledge and 
 encouragement that sustained him in his search for The 
 Way. 
 
 Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, where his 
 father was principal of an art school, and was brought to 
 Lahore when he was a child, so that he spent most of 
 his younger life there. He was educated at the Lahore 
 schools and university ; he served for several years as a re- 
 porter of the Lahore newspaper, and there he wrote most 
 of his short stories. "The Plain Tales From the Hills" 
 and the best of his "Barrack-Room Ballads" were in- 
 spired by his youthful association with the large military 
 garrison at this point. Here Danny Deever was hanged 
 for killing a comrade in a drunken passion, and here 
 Private Mulvaney developed his profound philosophy. 
 
 Lahore is the principal Protestant missionary center of 
 northern India. The American Presbyterians are the 
 
3o6 MODERN INDIA 
 
 oldest in point of time and the strongest in point of num- 
 bers. Tiiey came in 1849, and some of the pioneers are 
 still living. They have schools and colleges, a theological 
 seminary and other institutions, with altogether five or 
 six thousand students, and are turning out battalions of 
 native preachers and teachers for missionary work in 
 other parts of India. The American Methodists are also 
 strong and there are several schools maintained by Brit- 
 ish societies. Fifty years ago there was not a native 
 Christian in all these parts, and the missionaries had to 
 coax children into their schools by offering inducements 
 in the form of food and clothing. Now by the recent 
 census there are 65,811 professing Christians in the Pun- 
 jab province, and the schools and native churches are 
 nearly all self-supporting. 
 
 Lahore is an important market for native merchandise, 
 and the distributing point for imported European goods 
 as well as the native products, while Amritsar, the neigh- 
 boring city, is the manufacturing center. Here come 
 Cashmeris, Nepalese, Beluchis, Afghans, Persians, Bok- 
 harans, Khivans, Khokandes, Turcomans, Yarkandis, 
 Cashgaris, Thibetans, Tartars, Ghurkhars, and other 
 strange types of the human race in Asia, each wearing his 
 native dress and bringing upon caravans of camels and 
 elephants the handiwork of his neighbors. The great 
 merchants of London, Paris, Vienna, New York and Chi- 
 cago have buyers there picking up curious articles of na- 
 tive handiwork as well as staples like shawls from Cash- 
 mere and rugs and carpets from Amritsar. The finest 
 carpets in India are produced at Amristar, and between 
 4.000 and 5,000 people are engaged in their manufacture. 
 These operators are not collected in factories as with us, 
 but work in their own homes. The looms are usually set 
 
SIMLA AND THE PUNJAB 307 
 
 up in the doorways, through which the only Hght can 
 enter the houses, and as you pass up and down the streets 
 you see women and men, even children, at work at the 
 looms, for every member of the family takes a turn. As 
 in China, Japan and other oriental countries, arts and in- 
 dustries are hereditary. Children always follow the 
 trades of their parents, and all work is done in the house- 
 holds. The weavers of Amritsar to-day are making car- 
 pets and shawls upon the same looms that were used by 
 their great-grandfathers — yes, their progenitors ten and 
 twenty generations back — and are weaving the same pat- 
 terns, and it is to be regretted that modern chemical dyes 
 made in Paris, the United States and Germany are taking 
 the place of the primitive native methods which produced 
 richer and permanent colors. 
 
 The trade is handled by middlemen, who furnish ma- 
 terials to the weavers and pay them so much for their 
 labor upon each piece. The average earnings seem to us 
 ridiculously small. An entire family does not receive 
 more than $3 or $4 a month while engaged in producing 
 shawls that are sold in London and Paris for hundreds of 
 pounds and rugs that bring hundreds of dollars, but 
 it costs them little to live ; their wants are few, they 
 have never known any better circumstances and are 
 perfectly contented. The middleman, who is usually 
 a Persian Jew, makes the big profit. 
 
 Winter is not a good time for visiting northern India. 
 The weather is too cold and stormy. The roads are fre- 
 quently obstructed by snow, and the hotels are not built 
 to keep people up to American temperature. We could 
 not go to Cashmere at all, although it is one of the most 
 interesting provinces of the empire, because the roads 
 were blocked and bUzzards were lurking about. There is 
 
3o8 MODERN INDIA 
 
 almost universal misapprehension about the weather in 
 India. It is certainly a winter country ; it is almost im- 
 possible for unacclimated people to live in most of the 
 provinces between March and November, and no one can 
 visit some of them without discomfort from the heat at 
 any season of the year. At the same time Cashmere and 
 the Punjab province are comfortable no later than Octo- 
 ber and no earlier than May, for, although the sun is 
 bright and warm, the nights are intensely cold, and the 
 extremes are trying to strangers who are not accustomed 
 to them. You will often hear people who have traveled 
 all over the world say that they never suflfered so much 
 from the cold as in India, and it is safe to believe them. 
 The same degree of cold seems colder there than else- 
 where, because the mercury falls so rapidly after the sun 
 goes down. However, India is so vast, and the climate 
 and the elevations are so varied, that you can spend the 
 entire year there without discomfort if you migrate with 
 the birds and follow the barometer. There are plenty of 
 places to see and to stay in the summer as well as in the 
 winter. 
 
 We arrived in Bombay on the 12th of December, 
 which was at least a month too late. It would have been 
 better for us to have come the middle of October and gone 
 immediately north into the Punjab province and Cash- 
 mere, where we would have been comfortable. But 
 during the entire winter we were not uncomfortably 
 warm anywhere, and even in Bombay, which is consid- 
 ered one of the hottest places in the world, and during the 
 rainy season is almost intolerable, we slept under blankets 
 every night and carried sun umbrellas in the daytime. At 
 Jeypore, Agra, Delhi and other places the nights were as 
 cold as they ever are at Washington, double blankets 
 
SIMLA AND THE PUNJAB 309 
 
 were necessary on our beds, and ordinary overcoats when 
 we went out of doors after dark. Sometimes it was cold- 
 er inside the house than outside, and in several of the 
 hotels we had to put on our overcoats and wrap our legs 
 up in steamer rugs to keep from shivering. At the same 
 time the rays of the sun from ii to 3 or 4 in the after- 
 noon were intensely hot, and often seriously affect per- 
 sons not acclimated. If we ever go to India again we 
 will arrange to arrive in October and do the northern 
 provinces before the cold weather sets in. 
 
 It's a pity we could not go to Cashmere, because every- 
 body told us it is such an interesting place and so differ- 
 ent from other parts of India and the rest of the world. 
 It is a land of romance, poetry and strange pictures. 
 Lalla Rookh and other fascinating houris, with large 
 brown eyes, pearly teeth, raven tresses and ruby lips, 
 have lived there ; it is the home of the Cashmere bouquet, 
 and the Vale of Cashmere is an enchanted land. Average 
 Americans know mighty little about these strange coun- 
 tries, and it takes time to realize that they actually exist ; 
 but we find our fellow citizens everywhere we go. They 
 outnumber the tourists from all other nations combined. 
 
 I notice that the official reports of the Indian govern- 
 ment give the name as "Kashmir," and, like every other 
 place over here, it is spelled a dozen different ways, but 
 I shall stick to the old-fashioned spelling. It you want to 
 know something about it. Cashmere has an area of 81,000 
 square miles, a population of 2,905,578 by the census of 
 1901, and is governed by a maharaja with the advice of 
 a British "resident," who is the medium of communica- 
 tion between the viceroy and the local officials. The ma- 
 haraja is allowed to do about as he pleases as long as he 
 behaves himself, and is said to be a fairly good man. 
 
3IO MODERN INDIA 
 
 The people are peaceful and prosperous; politics is very 
 quiet ; taxes are low ; there is no debt, and a surplus of 
 more than $3,000,000 in the treasury, which is an unusual 
 state of affairs for a native Indian province. The exports 
 have increased from $1,990,000 in 1892 to $4,465,000 in 
 1902, and the imports from $2,190,000 in 1892 to $4,120,- 
 000 in 1902. The country has its own coinage and is 
 on a gold basis. The manufacturing industries are rap- 
 idly developing, although the lack of demand for Cash- 
 mere shawls has been a severe blow to local weavers, 
 who, however, have turned their attention to carpets and 
 rugs instead. Wool is the great staple, and from time 
 immemorial the weavers of Cashmere have turned out the 
 finest woolen fabrics in the world. They have suffered 
 much from the competition of machine-made goods 
 during the last half-century or more, and have been 
 growing careless because they cannot get the prices that 
 used to be paid for the finest products. In ancient times 
 the making of woolen garments was considered just as 
 much of an art in Cashmere as painting or sculpture in 
 France and Germany, porcelain work in China or cloi- 
 sonne work in Japan, and no matter how long a weaver 
 was engaged upon a garment, he was sure to find some- 
 body with sufficient taste and money to buy it. But now- 
 adays, like everybody else who is chasing the nimble 
 shilling, the Cashmere weavers are more solicitous about 
 their profits than about their patterns and the fine quality 
 of their goods. The lapse of the shawl trade has caused 
 the government to encourage the introduction of the silk 
 industry. A British expert has been engaged as director 
 of sericulture, seedlings of the mulberry tree are fur- 
 nished to villagers and farmers free of cost, and all co- 
 coons are purchased by the state at good prices. The 
 
SIMLA AND THE PUNJAB 311 
 
 government has silk factories employing between 6,000 
 and 7,000 persons under the instruction of French and 
 Swiss weavers. 
 
XX 
 
 FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 
 
 Famine is chronic in India, It has occurred at inter- 
 vals for centuries past, as long as records have been kept, 
 as long as man remembers, and undoubtedly will recur 
 for centuries to come, although the authorities who are 
 responsible for the well-being of the empire are gradually 
 organizing to counteract forces of nature which they can- 
 not control, by increasing the food supply and providing 
 means for its distribution. But there must be hunger and 
 starvation in India so long as the population remains as 
 dense as it is. The reason is not because the earth re- 
 fuses to support so many people. There is yet a vast area 
 of fertile land untilled, and the fields already cultivated 
 would furnish food enough for a larger population when 
 normal conditions prevail, although there's but a bare 
 half acre per capita. There is always enough somewhere 
 in India for everybody even in times of sorest distress, 
 but it is not distributed equally, and those who are short 
 have no money to buy and bring from those who have a 
 surplus. The export of grain and other products from 
 India continues regularly in the lean as well as the fat 
 years, but the country is so large, the distances so great, 
 the facilities for transportation so inadequate, that one 
 province may be exporting food to Europe because it has 
 to spare, while another province may be receiving ships 
 
 312 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 313 
 
 loaded with charity from America because its crops have 
 failed and its people are hungry. 
 
 The health and happiness of three hundred million hu- 
 man souls in India and also of their cattle, their oxen, 
 their sheep, their donkeys, their camels and their ele- 
 phants are dependent upon certain natural phenomena 
 over which neither rajah nor maharaja, nor viceroy, nor 
 emperor, nor council of state has control, and before 
 which even the great Mogul on his bejeweled throne 
 stood powerless. It is possible to ameliorate the conse- 
 quences, but it is not possible to prevent them. 
 
 Whether the crops shall be fat or lean, whether the 
 people and the cattle shall be fed or hungry, depends 
 upon the "monsoons," as they are called, alternating cur- 
 rents of wind, which bring rain in its season. All animal 
 and vegetable life is dependent upon them. In the early 
 summer the broad plains are heated by the sun to a tem- 
 perature higher than that of the water of the great seas 
 which surround them. In parts of northern India, 
 around Delhi and Agra, the temperature in May and 
 June is higher than in any other part of the empire, and 
 is exceeded in few other parts of the world. This phe- 
 nomenon remains unexplained. The elevation is about 
 2,100 feet above the sea; the atmosphere is dry and the 
 soil is sandy. But for some reason the rays of the sun 
 are intensely hot and are fatal to those who are exposed 
 to them without sufficient protection. But this extreme 
 heat is the salvation of the country, and by its own action 
 brings the relief without which all animal and vegetable 
 life would perish. It draws from the ocean a current of 
 wind laden with moisture which blows steadily for two 
 months toward the northwest and causes what is called 
 the rainy season. That wind is called the southwest mon- 
 
314 MODERN INDIA 
 
 soon. The quantity of rain that falls depends upon the 
 configuration of the land. Any cause which cools the 
 winds from the sea and leads to the condensation of the 
 vapor they carry — any obstacle which blocks their course 
 — causes precipitation. Through all the northern part of 
 India there is a heavy rainfall during April, May and 
 June, the earth is refreshed and quantities of water are 
 drained into reservoirs called "tanks," from which the 
 fields are irrigated later in the summer. 
 
 The quantity of rainfall diminishes as the winds blow 
 over the foothills and the mountains, and the enormous 
 heights of the Himalayas prevent them from passing their 
 snow-clad peaks and ridges. Hence the tablelands of 
 Thibet, which lie beyond, are the dryest and the most arid 
 region in the world. 
 
 As the sun travels south after midsummer the tempera- 
 ture falls, the vast dry tract of the Asiatic continent be- 
 comes colder, the barometric pressure over the land in- 
 creases, and the winds begin to blow from the northeast, 
 which are called the northeast monsoon, and cause a sec- 
 ond rainy season from October to December. These 
 winds, or monsoons, enable the farmers of India to grow 
 two crops, and they are entirely dependent upon their 
 regular appearance. 
 
 Over 80 per cent of the population are engaged in 
 farming. They live from hand to mouth. They have no 
 reserve whatever. If the monsoon fails nothing will 
 grow, and they have no money to import food for them- 
 selves and their cattle from more fortunate sections. 
 Hence they are helpless. As a rule the monsoons are 
 very reliable, but every few years they fail, and a famine 
 results. The government has a meteorological depart- 
 ment, with observers stationed at several points in Africa 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 315 
 
 and Arabia and in the islands of the sea, to record and re- 
 port the actions of nature. Thus it has been able of late 
 years to anticipate the fat and the lean harvests. It is 
 possible to predict almost precisely several months in 
 advance whether there will be a failure of crops, and a 
 permanent famine commission has been organized to 
 prepare measures of relief before they are needed. In 
 other words, Lord Curzon and his official associates are 
 reducing famine relief to a system which promotes econ- 
 omy as well as efficiency. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that the monsoon currents 
 which cross the Indian Ocean from South Africa con- 
 tinue on their course through Australia after visiting 
 India, and recent famines in the latter country have 
 coincided with the droughts which caused much injury 
 to stock in the former. Thus it has been demonstrated 
 that both countries depend upon the same conditions for 
 their rainfall, except that human beings suffer in India 
 while only sheep die of hunger in the Australian colonies. 
 
 The worst famine ever known in India occurred in 
 1770, when Governor General Warren Hastings reported 
 that one-third of the inhabitants of Bengal perished from 
 hunger — ten millions out of thirty millions. The streets 
 of Calcutta and other towns were actually blocked up 
 with the bodies of the dead, which were thrown out of 
 doors and windows because there was no means or op- 
 portunity to bury them. The empire has been stricken 
 almost as hard during the last ten years. The develop- 
 ment of civilization seems to make a little difference, for 
 the famine of 1900-1901 was perhaps second in severity 
 to that of 1770. This, however, was largely due to the 
 fact that the population had not had time to recover from 
 the famine of 1896-97, which was almost as severe, al- 
 
3i6 MODERN INDIA 
 
 though everything possible was done to rcHeve distress 
 and prevent the spread of plagues and pestilence that are 
 the natural and unavoidable consequences of insufficient 
 nourishment. 
 
 No precautions that sanitary science can suggest have 
 been omitted, yet the weekly reports now show an average 
 of twenty thousand deaths from the bubonic plague alone. 
 The officials explain that that isn't so high a rate as 
 inexperienced people infer, considering that the popula- 
 tion is nearly three hundred millions, and they declare 
 it miraculous that it is not larger, because the Hindu 
 portion of the population is packed so densely into in- 
 sanitary dwellings, because only a small portion of the 
 natives have sufficient nourishment to meet the demands 
 of nature and are constantly exposed to influences that 
 produce and spread disease. The death rate is always 
 very high in India for these reasons. But it seems very 
 small when compared with the awful mortality caused 
 by the frequent famines. The mind almost refuses to 
 accept the figures that are presented ; it does not seem 
 possible in the present age, with all our methods for 
 alleviating suffering, that millions of people can actually 
 die of hunger in a land of railroads and steamships and 
 other facilities for the transportation of food. It seems 
 beyond comprehension, yet the official returns justify the 
 acceptance of the maximum figures reported. 
 
 The loss of human life from starvation in British India 
 alone during the famine of 1900-1901 is estimated at 
 1,236,855, and this is declared to be the minimum. In : 
 country of the area of India, inhabited by a superstitious, 
 secretive and ignorant population, it is impossible to com- 
 pel the natives to report accidents and deaths, particularly 
 among the Brahmins, who burn instead of bury their dead. 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 317 
 
 Those who know best assert that at least 15 per cent 
 of the deaths are not reported in times of famines and 
 epidemics. And the enormous estimate I have given 
 does not include any of the native states, which have 
 one-third of the area and one-fourth of the population 
 of the empire. In some of them sanitary regulations 
 are observed, and statistics are accurately reported. In 
 others no attempt is made to keep a registry of deaths, 
 and there are no means of ascertaining the mortality, 
 particularly in times of excitement. In these little prin- 
 cipalities the peasants have, comparatively speaking, no 
 medical attendance ; they are dependent upon ignorant 
 fakirs and sorcerers, and they die off like flies, without 
 even leaving a record of their disappearance. Therefore 
 the only way of ascertaining the mortality of those sec- 
 tions is to make deductions from the returns of the census, 
 which is taken with more or less accuracy every ten years. 
 
 The census of 1901 tells a terrible tale of human suf- 
 fering and death during the previous decade, which was 
 marked by two famines and several epidemics of cholera, 
 smallpox and other contagious diseases. Taking the 
 whole of India together, the returns show that during 
 the ten years from 1892 to 1901, inclusive, there was an 
 increase of less than 6,000,000 instead of the normal in- 
 crease of 19,000,000, which was to be expected, judging 
 by the records of the previous decades of the country. 
 More than 10,000,000 people disappeared in the native 
 states alone without leaving a trace behind them. 
 
 The official report of the home secretary shows that 
 Baroda State lost 460,000, or 19.23 per cent of its popu- 
 lation. 
 
 The Rajputana states lost 2,175,000, or 18.1 per cent 
 of their population. 
 
3i8 MODERN INDIA 
 
 The central states lost 1,817,000, or 17.5 per cent. 
 
 Bombay Province lost 1,168,000, or 14.5 per cent. 
 
 The central provinces lost 939,000, or 8.71 per cent. 
 
 These are the provinces that suffered most from the 
 famine, and therefore show the largest decrease in popu- 
 lation. 
 
 The famine of 1900-01 affected an area of more than 
 four hundred thousand square miles and a population 
 exceeding sixty millions, of whom twenty-five millions 
 belong in the provinces of British India and thirty-five 
 millions to the native states. 
 
 "Within this area," Lord Curzon says, "the famine 
 conditions for the greater part of a year were intense. 
 Outside it they extended with a gradually dwindling 
 radius over wide districts which suffered much from loss 
 of crops and cattle, if not from actual scarcity. In a 
 greater or less degree in 1900-01 nearly one-fourth of the 
 entire population of the Indian continent came within the 
 range of relief operations. 
 
 "It is difficult to express in figures with any close 
 degree of accuracy the loss occasioned by so widespread 
 and severe a visitation. But it may be roughly put in 
 this way : The annual agricultural product of India aver- 
 ages in value between two and three hundred thousand 
 pounds sterling. On a very cautious estimate the pro- 
 duction in 1899-1900 must have been at least one-quarter 
 if not one-third below the average. At normal prices 
 this loss was at least fifty million pounds sterling, or, in 
 round numbers, two hundred and fifty million dollars in 
 American money. But, in reality, the loss fell on a 
 portion only of the continent, and ranged from total 
 failure of crops in certain sections to a loss of 20 and 30 
 per cent of the normal crops in districts which are not 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 319 
 
 reckoned as falling within the famine tract. If to this 
 be added the value of several millions of cattle and 
 other live stock, some conception may be formed of the 
 destruction of property which that great drought occa- 
 sioned. There have been many great droughts in India, 
 but there have been no others of which such figures could 
 have been predicated as these. 
 
 "But the most notable feature of the famine of 1900-01 
 was the liberality of the public and the government. It 
 has no parallel in the history of the world. For weeks 
 more than six million persons were dependent upon the 
 charity of the government. In 1897 the high water mark 
 of relief was reached in the second fortnight of Alay, 
 when there were nearly four million persons receiving 
 relief in British India. Taking the affected population 
 as forty millions, the ratio of relief was 10 per cent. 
 In one district of Madras and in two districts of the 
 northwestern provinces the ratio for some months was 
 about 30 per cent, but these were exceptional cases. In 
 the most distressed districts of the central provinces 16 per 
 cent was regarded in 1896-7 as a very high standard of 
 relief. Now take the figures of 1900-01. For some 
 weeks upward of four and a half million persons were 
 receiving food from the government in British India, 
 and, reckoned on a population of twenty-five millions, 
 the ratio was 18 per cent, as compared with 10 per cent 
 of the population in 1897. In many districts it exceeded 
 20 per cent. In several it exceeded 30 per cent. In two 
 districts it exceeded 40 per cent, and in the district of 
 Merwara, where famine had been present for two years, 
 75 per cent of the population were dependent upon the 
 government for food. Nothing I could say can intensify 
 the simple eloquence of these figures. 
 
320 MODERN INDIA 
 
 "The first thing to be done was to relieve the imme- 
 diate distress, to feed the hungry, to rescue those who 
 were dying of starvation. The next step was to furnish 
 employment at living w^ages for those who were penni- 
 less until we could help them to get upon their feet 
 again, and finally to devise means and methods to meet 
 such emergencies in the future, because famines are the 
 fate of India and must continue to recur under existing 
 conditions. 
 
 "I should like to tell you of the courage, endurance and 
 the devotion of the men who distributed the relief, many 
 of whom died at their posts of duty as bravely and as 
 uncomplainingly as they might have died upon the field 
 of battle. The world will never know the extent and 
 the number of sacrifices made by British and native 
 officials. The government alone expended $32,000,000 
 for food, while the amount disbursed by the native states, 
 by religious and private charities, was very large. The 
 contributions from abroad were about $3,000,000, and 
 the government loaned the farmers more than $20,000,000 
 to buy seed and cattle and put in new crops. 
 
 "So far as the official figures are concerned, the total 
 cost of the famine of 1900 was as follows: 
 
 BRITISH INDIA 
 
 Direct relief $31,950,000 
 
 Loss of revenue 16,200,000 
 
 Loans to farmers and native states 21,300,000 
 
 NATIVE STATES 
 
 Relief expenditure and loss of revenue.... 22,500,000 
 
 Total $91,950,000 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 321 
 
 "Some part of these loans and advances will eventually 
 be repaid. But it is not a new thing for the government 
 of India to relieve its people in times of distress. The 
 frequent famines have been an enormous drain upon the 
 resources of the empire." 
 
 The following table shows the expenditures for 
 famine relief by the imperial government of India during 
 the last twenty-one years: 
 
 Five years, 1881-86 $ 25,573,885 
 
 Five years, 1886-91 11,449,190 
 
 Five years, 1891-96 21,631,900 
 
 1896-1897 8,550,705 
 
 1897-1898 19.053.575 
 
 1898-1899 5,000,000 
 
 1899-1900 10,642,235 
 
 1900-1901 20,829,335 
 
 1901-1902 5,000,000 
 
 Total (twenty-one years) $127,730,825 
 
 Among the principal items chargeable to famine re- 
 lief, direct and indirect, are the wages paid dependent 
 persons employed during famines in the construction of 
 railways and irrigation works, which, during the last 
 twenty-one years, have been as follows : 
 
 Construction 
 Direct fam- Construction of irrigation 
 
 ine relief. of railways. works. 
 
 Five years, '81 -'86 $ 379,760 $9,113,165 $3,739-790 
 
 1 886- 1 89 1 277,030 666,665 1,384,570 
 
 1891-1896 411,065 12,056,505 921,675 
 
 1896-1897 6,931,750 156,100 
 
 1897-1898 17,752,025 125,055 
 
322 MODERN INDIA 
 
 1898-1899 133.515 2.301,175 38,900 
 
 1899-1900 10,375,590 119,650 
 
 1900-1901 20,626,150 155.570 
 
 1901-1902 2,645,905 35346.5 
 
 Total (21 years) $59,531,790 $24,137,610 $6,994,775 
 
 The chief remedies which the government has been 
 endeavoring to apply are : 
 
 1. To extend the cultivated area by building irriga- 
 tion works and scattering the people over territory that 
 is not now occupied. 
 
 2. To construct railways and other transportation 
 facilities for the distribution of food. This work has 
 been pushed with great energy, and during the last ten 
 years the railway mileage has been increased nearly 50 
 per cent to a total of more than 26,000 miles. About 
 2,000 miles are now under construction and approaching 
 completion, and fresh projects will be taken up and 
 pushed so that food may be distributed throughout the 
 empire as rapidly as possible in time of emergency. Rail- 
 way construction has also been one of the chief methods 
 of relief. During the recent famine, and that of 1897, 
 millions of coolies, who could find no other employment, 
 were engaged at living wages upon various public works. 
 This was considered better than giving them direct re- 
 lief, which was avoided as far as possible so that they 
 should not acquire the habit of depending upon charity. 
 And as a part of the permanent famine relief system for 
 future emergencies, the board of public works has laid 
 out a scheme of roads and the department of agriculture a 
 system of irrigation upon which the unemployed labor 
 can be mobilized at short notice, and funds have been 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 3^3 
 
 set apart for the payment of their wages. This is one of 
 the most comprehensive schemes of charity ever con- 
 ceived, and must commend to every mind the wisdom, 
 foresight and benevolence of the Indian government, 
 which, with the experience with a dozen famines, has 
 found that its greatest diffculty has been to reheve the 
 distressed and feed the hungry without making perma- 
 nent paupers of them. Every feature of famine reHef 
 nowadays involves the employment of the needy and 
 rejects the free distribution of food. 
 
 3. The government is doing everything possible to 
 encourage the diversification of labor, to draw people 
 from the farms and employ them in other industries. 
 This requires a great deal of time, because it depends 
 upon private enterprise, but during the last ten years 
 there has been a notable increase in the number of me- 
 chanical industries and the number of people employed 
 by them, which it is believed will continue because of the 
 profits that have been realized by investors. 
 
 4. The government is also making special efforts to 
 develop the dormant resources of the empire. There has 
 been a notable increase in mining, lumbering, fishing, 
 and other outside industries which have not received the 
 attention they deserved by the people of India; and, 
 finally, 
 
 5. The influence of the government has also been 
 exerted so far as could be to the encouragement of habits 
 of thrift among the people by the establishment of postal 
 savings banks and other inducements for wage-earners 
 to save their money. Ninety per cent of the population 
 of India lives from hand to mouth and depends for sus- 
 tenance upon the crops raised upon little patches of 
 ground which in America would be too insignificant for 
 
324 MODERN INDIA 
 
 consideration. There is very seldom a surplus. The 
 ordinary Hindu never gets ahead, and, therefore, when 
 his little crop fails he is helpless. 
 
 The munificence of Mr. Henry Phipps of New Yorjc 
 has enabled the government of India to provide one of 
 the preventives of famine by educating the people in 
 agricultural science. A college, an experimental farm and 
 research laboratory have been established on the govern- 
 ment estate of Pusa, in southern Bengal, a tract of 1,280 
 acres, which has been used since 1874 as a breeding 
 ranch, a tobacco experimental farm and a model dairy. 
 No country has needed such an institution more than 
 India, where 80 per cent of the population are engaged 
 in agricultural pursuits, and most of them with primitive 
 implements and methods. But the conservatism and the 
 illiteracy, the prejudices and the ignorance of the natives 
 make it exceedingly difficult to introduce innovations, 
 and it is the conviction of those best qualified to speak 
 that the only way of improving the condition of the 
 farmer classes is to begin at the top and work down by 
 the force of example. During a recent visit to India this 
 became apparent to Mr. Phipps, who is eminently a prac- 
 tical man, and has been in the habit of dealing with in- 
 dustrial questions all of his life. He was brought up in 
 the Carnegie iron mills, became a superintendent, a mana- 
 ger and a partner, and, when the company went into the 
 great trust, retired from active participation in its man- 
 agement with an immense fortune. He has built a beau- 
 tiful house in New York, has leased an estate in Scot- 
 land, where his ancestors came from, and has been spend- 
 ing a vacation, earned by forty years of hard labor, in 
 traveling about the world. His visit to India brought 
 him into a friendly acquaintance with Lord Curzon, in 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 325 
 
 whom he found a congenial spirit, and doubtless the 
 viceroy received from the practical common sense of Mr. 
 Phipps many suggestions that will be valuable to him in 
 the administration of the government, and in the solu- 
 tion of the frequent problems that perplex him. Mr. 
 Phipps, on the other hand, had his sympathy and interest 
 excited in the industrial conditions of India, and par- 
 ticularly in the famine phenomena. He therefore placed 
 at the disposal of Lord Curzon the sum of $100,000, to 
 which he has since added $50,000, to be devoted to what- 
 ever object of public utility in the direction of scientific 
 research the viceroy might consider most useful and ex- 
 pedient. In accepting this generous oflfer it appeared to 
 His Excellency that no more practical or useful object 
 could be found to which to devote the gift, nor one more 
 entirely in harmony with the wishes of the donor, than 
 the establishment of a laboratory for agricultural re- 
 search, and Mr. Phipps has expressed his warm approval 
 of the decision. 
 
 It is proposed to place the college upon a higher grade 
 than has ever been reached by any agricultural school in 
 India, not only to provide for a reform of the agricultural 
 methods of the country, but also to serve as a model for 
 and to raise the standard of the provincial schools, be- 
 cause at none of them are there arrangements for a com- 
 plete or competent agricultural education. It is proposed 
 to have a course of five years for the training of teachers 
 for other institutions and the specialists needed in the 
 various branches of science connected with the agricul- 
 tural department, who are now imported from Europe. 
 The necessity for such an education. Lord Curzon says, 
 is constantly becoming more and more imperative. The 
 higher officials of the government have long realized that 
 
326 MODERN IXDIA 
 
 there should be some institution in India where they can 
 train the men they require, if their scheme of agricul- 
 tural reformation is ever to be placed upon a practical 
 basis and made an actual success. For those who wish 
 to qualify for professorships or for research work, or 
 for ofiicial positions requiring special scientific attain- 
 ments, it is believed that a five years' course is none too 
 long. But for young men who desire only to train them- 
 selves for the management of their own estates or the 
 estates of others, a three years' course will be provided, 
 with practical work upon the farm and in the stable. 
 
 The government has solved successfully several of the 
 irrigation problems now under investigation by the Agri- 
 cultural Department and the Geological Survey of the 
 United States. The most successful public works of that 
 nature are in the northern part of the empire. The 
 facilities for irrigation in India are quite as varied as 
 in the United States, the topography being similar and 
 equally diverse. In the north the water supply comes 
 from the melting snows of the Himalayas ; in the east 
 and west from the great river systems of the Ganges 
 and the Indus, while in the central and southern portions 
 the farmers are dependent upon tanks or reservoirs into 
 which the rainfall is drained and kept in store until 
 needed. In several sections the rainfall is so abundant 
 as to aflford a supply of water for the tanks which sur- 
 passes in constancy and volume that from any of the 
 rivers. In Bombay and Madras provinces almost all of 
 the irrigation systems are dependent upon this method. 
 In the river provinces are many canals which act as dis- 
 tributaries during the spring overflow, carry the water 
 a long distance and distribute it over a large area during 
 the periods of inundation. In several places the use- 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 327 
 
 fulness of these canals has been increased by the con- 
 struction of reservoirs which receive and hold the floods 
 upon the plan proposed for some of our arid states. 
 
 In India the water supply is almost entirely controlled 
 by the government. There are some private enterprises, 
 but most of them are for the purpose of reaching land 
 owned by the projectors. A few companies sell water to 
 the adjacent farmers on the same plan as that prevailing 
 in California, Colorado and other of our states. But the 
 government of India has demonstrated the wisdom of 
 national ownership and control, and derives a large and 
 regular revenue therefrom. In the classification adopted 
 by the department of public works the undertakings are 
 designated as "major" and "minor" classes. ^ The 
 "major" class includes all extensive works which have 
 been built by government money, and are maintained 
 under government supervision. Some of them, classed 
 as "famine protective works," were constructed with relief 
 funds during seasons of famine in order to furnish work 
 and wages to the unemployed, and at the same time pro- 
 vide a certain supply of water for sections of the coun- 
 try exposed to drought. The "minor" works are of less 
 extent, and have been constructed from time to time to 
 assist private enterprise. 
 
 The financial history of the public irrigation works of 
 India will be particularly interesting to the people of the 
 United States because our government is just entering 
 upon a similar policy. The following statement is 
 brought down to December 31, 1902: 
 
 Cost of construction $125,005,705 
 
 Receipts from water rates (1902) 7)797>890 
 
 Receipts from land taxes (1902) 4,066,985 
 
328 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Total revenue from all sources (1902) 1 1,864,875 
 
 Working expenses ( 1902) 3,509,600 
 
 Net revenue ( 1902) 8,355,275 
 
 Interest on capital invested 4,720,615- 
 
 Net revenue, deducting interest 3,634,660 
 
 Profit on capital invested, per cent 6.97 
 
 Net profit to the government, per cent 3.04 
 
 In addition to this revenue from the "major" irrigation 
 w^orks belonging to the government, the net receipts from 
 "minor" works during the year 1902 amounted to 
 $864,360 in American money. 
 
 In other words, the government of India has invested 
 about $125,000,000 in reservoirs, canals, dams and ditches 
 for the purpose of securing regular crops for the farmers 
 of that empire who are exposed to drought, and not only 
 has accomplished that purpose, but, after deducting y/2 
 per cent as interest upon the amount named, enjoys a net 
 profit of more than $3,500,000 after the payment of run- 
 ning expenses and repairs. These profits are regularly 
 expended in the extension of irrigation works. 
 
 In the Sinde province, which is the extreme western 
 section of India, adjoining the colony of Beluchistan on 
 the Arabian Sea, there are about 12,500,000 acres of land 
 fit for cultivation. Of this a little more than 9,000,000 
 acres are under cultivation, irrigated with water from the 
 Indus River, and the government system reaches 
 3,077,466 acres. Up to December 31, 1902, it had ex- 
 pended $8,830,000 in construction and repairs, and dur- 
 ing that year received a net revenue of 8.5 per cent upon 
 that amount over and above interest and running 
 expenses. 
 
 In Madras 6,884,554 acres have been irrigated by the 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 329 
 
 government works at a cost of $24,975,000. In 1902 
 they paid an average net revenue of 9.5 per cent upon the 
 investment, and the vahie of the crops grown upon the 
 irrigated land was $36,663,000. 
 
 In the united provinces of Agra and Oudh in northern 
 India the supply of water from the Himalayas is dis- 
 tributed through 12,919 miles of canals belonging to the 
 government, constructed at a cost of $28,625,000, which 
 irrigates 2,741,460 acres. In 1902 the value of the crops 
 harvested upon this land was $28,336,005, and the gov- 
 ernment received a net return of 6.15 per cent upon the 
 investment. The revenue varies in different parts of the 
 provinces. One system known as the Eastern Jumna 
 Canal, near Lucknow, paid 23 per cent upon its cost in 
 water rents during that year. In other parts of the 
 province, where the construction was much more expen- 
 sive, the receipts fell as low as 2.12 per cent. 
 
 In the Punjab province, the extreme northwestern cor- 
 ner of India, adjoining Afghanistan on the west and 
 Cashmere on the east, where the water supply comes 
 from the melting snows of the Himalayas, the govern- 
 ment receives a net profit of 10.83 per cent, and the value 
 of the crop in the single year of 1902 was one and one- 
 fourth times the total amount invested in the works to 
 date. 
 
 This does not include a vast undertaking known as 
 the Chenab Canal, which has recently been completed, 
 and now supplies more than 2,000,000 acres with water. 
 Its possibilities include 5,527,000 acres. As a combina- 
 tion of business and benevolence and as an exhibition 
 of administrative energy and wisdom, it is remarkable, 
 and is of especial interest to the people of the United 
 
330 MODERN INDIA 
 
 States because the conditions arc similar to those existing 
 in our own arid states and territories. 
 
 If you will take a map of India and run your eye up to 
 the northwestern corner you will see a large bald spot 
 just south of the frontier through which runs the river 
 Chenab (or Chenaub) — the name of the stream is spelt a 
 dozen different ways, like every other geographical name 
 in India. This river, which is a roaring torrent during 
 the rainy season and as dry as a bone for six months in 
 the year, resembles several of our western rivers, par- 
 ticularly the North Platte, and runs through an immense 
 tract of arid desert similar to those found in our moun- 
 tain states. This desert is known as the Rechna Doab, 
 and until recently was waste government land, a barren, 
 lifeless tract upon which nothing but snakes and lizards 
 could exist, although the soil is heavily charged with 
 chemicals of the most nutritious character for plants, 
 and when watered yields enormous crops of wheat and 
 other cereals. Fifteen years ago it was absolutely unin- 
 habited. To-day it is the home of about 800,000 happy 
 and prosperous people, working more than 200,000 farms, 
 in tracts of from five to fifty acres. The average popula- 
 tion of the territory disclosed at the census of 1901 was 
 212 per square mile, and it is expected that the extension 
 of the water supply and natural development will largely 
 increase this average. 
 
 The colony has been in operation for a little more than 
 eleven years. The colonists were drawn chiefly from the 
 more densely populated districts of the Punjab province, 
 and were attracted by a series of remarkable harvests, 
 which were sold at exorbitant prices during the famine 
 years. The land was given away by the government to 
 actual settlers upon a plan similar to that of our home- 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 331 
 
 stead act, the settlers being given a guarantee of a cer- 
 tain amount of water per acre to a fixed price. The 
 demand caused by the popularity of the colony has al- 
 ready exhausted the entire area watered by the canals, 
 but an extension and enlargement of the system will bring 
 more land gradually under cultivation, the estimates of 
 the engineers contemplating an addition of 2,000,000 
 acres within the next few years. 
 
 The value of the crop produced in 1902 upon 1,830,525 
 acres of irrigated land in this colony was $16,845,000, 
 irrigated by canals that cost $8,628,380, and the gov- 
 ernment enjoyed a net profit of 14.01 per cent that year 
 upon its benevolent enterprise. Aside from the money 
 value of the scheme, there is another very important con- 
 sideration. More than half of the canals and ditches 
 were constructed by "famine labor" — that is, by men and 
 women (for women do manual labor in India the same 
 as men) who were unable to obtain other employment 
 and would have died of starvation but for the intervention 
 of the government. Instead of being supplied with food 
 at relief stations, these starving people were shipped to 
 the Rechan Doab Desert and put to work at minimum 
 wages. 
 
 You will agree with me that the government has a 
 right to feel proud of its new colony, and its success has 
 stimulated interest in similar enterprises in other parts 
 of the empire. It has not only furnished employment 
 to thousands of starving people, but by bringing under 
 cultivation a large tract of barren land with a positive 
 certainty of regular harvests it has practically insured 
 that section of the country against future famines. 
 
 The following figures will show the rapid development 
 of the colony from the first season of 1892-93 to the end 
 
332 MODERN INDIA 
 
 of the season 1901, which is the latest date for which 
 statistics can be obtained : 
 
 CAPITAL OUTLAY TO END OF YF.AR 
 
 ;[892-93 i 721,233 1897-98 £1,512,916 
 
 1893-94 878,034 1898-99 1 ,616,676 
 
 1894-95 995,932 I899-I900 1,677,982 
 
 1895-96 1,174,781 1900-01 1,725,676 
 
 1896-97 1,362,075 
 
 ACRES IRRIGATED DURING THE YEAR 
 
 1892-93 157,197 1897-98 810,000 
 
 1893-94 270,405 1898-99 957705 
 
 1894-95 269,357 1899-I9OO 1,353-223 
 
 1895-96 369,935 1900-01 1,830,525 
 
 1896-97 520,279 
 
 NET REVENUE DURING THE YEAR 
 
 1892-93 i 4,084 1897-98 £111,041 
 
 1893-94 3,552 1898-99 131,566 
 
 1894-95 9,511 1899-I9OO 155.302 
 
 1895-96 51,632 1900-01 421,812 
 
 1896-97 92,629 
 
 RETURN ON CAPITAL OUTLAY, PER CENT 
 
 1892-93 0.57 1897-98 7.34 
 
 1893-94 0.40 1898-99 8.14 
 
 1894-95 0.96 I899-I9OO 9.26 
 
 1895-96 4.40 1900-01 14.01 
 
 1896-97 6.75 
 
 The system of allotment of land may be interesting. 
 As the area under irrigation was entirely open and un- 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 333 
 
 occupied, few difficulties were met with, and the en- 
 gineers were perfectly free in plotting the land. The 
 entire area was divided into squares of 1,000 feet bound- 
 ary on each side, and these squares were each divided 
 into twenty-five fields which measure about one acre 
 and are the unit of calculation in sales and in measuring 
 water. Sixty squares, or 1,500 fields, compose a village, 
 and between the villages, surrounding them on all four 
 sides, are canals. Between the squares are ditches, and 
 between the fields are smaller ditches, so that the water 
 can be measured and the allowance made without diffi- 
 culty. The government sells no smaller piece than a 
 field of twenty-five acres, but purchasers can buy in 
 partnership and afterwards subdivide it. 
 
 Each village is under the charge of a superintendent, 
 or resident engineer, who is responsible to a superior en- 
 gineer, who has charge of a number of villages. Each field 
 is numbered upon a map, and a record is kept of the area 
 cultivated, the character of the crops sown, the dates of 
 irrigation and the amount of water allowed. Before 
 harvest a new measurement is taken and a bill is given to 
 the cultivator showing the amount of his assessment, 
 which is collected when his crop is harvested. As there 
 has never been a crop failure, this is a simple process, 
 and in addition to the water rate a land tax of 42 cents 
 an acre is collected at the same time and paid into the 
 treasury to the credit of the revenue department, while 
 the water rates are credited to the canal department. 
 
 The chief engineer fixes the volume of water to be 
 furnished to each village and the period for which it is 
 to remain flowing. The local superintendent regulates 
 the amount allowed each cultivator, according to the crops 
 he has planted. There are six rates, regulated by the 
 
334 MODERN INDIA 
 
 crop's, for some need more water than others, as follows : 
 
 Class. Crops. Rate per acre. 
 
 I — Sugar cane $2.50 
 
 2— Rice 2.10 
 
 3 — Orchards, gardens, tobacco, indigo, vegetables 
 
 and melons i . 66 
 
 4 — Cotton, oil seeds, Indian corn and all cold 
 
 weather crops, except grain and lentils 1.66 
 
 5 — All crops other than specified above 83 
 
 6 — Single water to plow, not followed by a crop. . .40 
 
 As I have shown you from the figures above, this en- 
 terprise has proved highly profitable to the government, 
 and its management is entitled to the highest compliments. 
 
 The main canal was originally forty miles long, aver- 
 aging 109 feet wide, with an average slope of one foot 
 to the mile, and capable of carrying seven feet four 
 inches of water, or 10,000 cubic feet, per second. Twenty- 
 eight miles have since been enlarged to a width of 250 
 feet and the remaining twelve miles to a width of 150 
 feet. The canal has been deepened to nine feet six inches, 
 and the intention is to deepen it one foot more. The 
 banks of the main canal are twenty-five feet wide at the 
 top and are built entirely of earth. A railway ninety-six 
 miles long of three-foot gauge has been constructed down 
 the main canal, which is a great convenience in shipping 
 crops and pays a profit to the government. It was con- 
 structed by the canal engineers while the ditch was being 
 dug. There are 390 miles of branch canals from thirty to 
 fifty feet wide and from six to eight feet deep, and 2,095 
 miles of distributaries, or ditches running between vil- 
 lages and squares. The banks of the branches and 
 ditches are all wide enough for highways, and thus en- 
 
FAMINES AND THEIR ANTIDOTES 335 
 
 able the people to go from village to village and get their 
 crops to market. Several towns of considerable size 
 have already grown up ; the largest, called Lyallpur, 
 having about 10,000 inhabitants. It is the headquarters 
 of the canal and also of the civil authorities ; and scat- 
 tered through the irrigated country are about 100 per- 
 manent houses used as residences and offices by the 
 superintendents and engineers. 
 
XXI 
 
 THE FRONTIER QUESTION 
 
 The most sensitive nerve in the British Empire ter- 
 minates in Afghanistan, and the ghost of the czar is 
 always dancing about the Khyber Pass, through which 
 caravans laden with merchandise find their way across the 
 mountains between India and the countries of Central 
 Asia. Every time there is a stir in a clump of bushes, 
 every time a board creaks in the floor, every time a foot- 
 step is heard under the window, the goose flesh rises on 
 John Bull's back, and he imagines that the Great White 
 Bear is smelling around the back door of his empire in 
 India. Peshawur is the jumping-oiT place of the North- 
 west, the limit of British authority, the terminus of the 
 railway system of India and the great gateway between 
 that empire and Central Asia, through which every- 
 thing must pass. It is to the interior of Asia what the 
 Straits of Gibraltar are to the Mediterranean Sea, and 
 the Dardanelles to the Black and Caspian seas. While 
 there are 300 paths over the mountains in other direc- 
 tions, and it might be possible to cross them with an army, 
 it has never been attempted and would involve dangers, 
 expense and delays which no nation would undertake. 
 The Khyber Pass has been the great and only route for 
 ages whether for war or commerce. The masters of 
 Central Asia, whether Persians, Greeks, Macedonians or 
 Assyrians, have held it. Alexander the Great crossed it 
 
 336 
 
THE FRONTIER QUESTION 337 
 
 with his army. Timour the Tartar, whom we know 
 better as Tamerlane, came through upon his all-conquer- 
 ing expedition when he subdued India to found the Mogul 
 Empire, and if the Russians ever enter India by land 
 they will come this way. 
 
 The pass is reached by crossing a stony plain ten miles 
 from Peshawur, and winds through gorges and crevices 
 in the mountains for thirty-three miles at an altitude 
 averaging 7,000 feet above the sea. At one point the 
 mountains close in to about 500 feet apart and the rocks 
 rise in sheer precipices on either side ; in other places the 
 gorge widens to a mile or more and will average perhaps 
 three-quarters of a mile the entire distance. It is a 
 remarkable gateway, a natural barrier between hereditary 
 enemies and easily defended from either side. Kabul, 
 the capital of Afghanistan, is 180 miles from the western 
 entrance to the defile. 
 
 The British fortifications are at Jamrud, nine miles 
 from Peshawur, and the terminus of the railways, where 
 a strong garrison is always kept. The pass itself is con- 
 trolled by a powerful semi-independent native tribe called 
 the Afridis, estimated at 20,000 strong, who receive sub- 
 sidies from the British government and from the Ameer of 
 Afghanistan to keep them good-natured on the pretext 
 that they are to do police work and keep order in the pass. 
 It is blackmail and bribery, but accomplishes its purpose, 
 and the pass itself, with a strip of highlands and foothills 
 on the Afghanistan side, is thus occupied by a neutral 
 party, which prevents friction between the nations on 
 either side of the border. The Afridis are fearless 
 fighters, half-civilized, half-savage, and almost entirely 
 supported by the subsidies they receive. Nearly all of 
 the able-bodied men are under arms. A few, who are 
 
338 MODERN INDIA 
 
 too old or too young to fight, remain at home and look 
 after the cattle and the scraggy gardens upon the gravelly 
 hillsides. The women are as hardy and as enduring as 
 the men and are taught to handle the rifle. The British 
 authorities are confident of the loyalty of the Afridis and 
 believe that the present arrangement would be absolutely 
 safe in time of war as it is in time of peace — that they 
 would permit no armed body, whether Russians or Af- 
 ghans, to cross the pass without the consent of both sides, 
 as is provided by treaty stipulations. 
 
 The arrangement is as efifective as it is novel and the 
 Afridis carry out every detail conscientiously. The pass 
 is open only two days in the week, on Tuesdays and Fri- 
 days. No one is permitted to cross or even enter it from 
 either side except on those days. And even then trav- 
 elers, tourists and others actuated by curiosity are not 
 allowed to go through without permits. The caravans 
 going both ways are required to camp under well-formed 
 regulations at either entrance until daylight of Tuesday 
 or Friday, when they are escorted through by armed 
 bodies of Afridis horsemen. There is not the slightest 
 danger of any sort to any one, but it is just as well to go 
 through the ceremony, for it keeps the Afridis out of mis- 
 chief and reminds them continually of their great respon- 
 sibilities. These caravans are interesting. They are 
 composed of long strings of loaded camels, ox-carts, 
 mules and donkeys, vehicles of all descriptions and thou- 
 sands of people traveling on foot, who come sometimes 
 from as far west as the Ural Mountains and the banks 
 of the Volga River. They come from Persia, from all 
 parts of Siberia and from the semi-barbarous tribes who 
 inhabit that mysterious region in central Asia, known as 
 the "Roof of the World." 
 
THE FRONTIER QUESTION 339 
 
 The camel drivers and the traders are fierce-looking 
 men and extremely dirty. They have traveled a long 
 way and over roads that are very dusty, and water is 
 scarce the entire distance. They look as if they had 
 never washed their faces or cut their hair, and their 
 shaggy, greasy, black locks hang down upon their shoul- 
 ders beneath enormous turbans. Each wears the cos- 
 tume of his own country, but they are so ragged, grimy 
 and filthy that the romance of it is lost. The Afghans 
 are in the majority. They are stalwart, big-bearded men, 
 with large features, long noses and cunning eyes, and 
 claim that their ancestors were one of the lost tribes of 
 Israel. Their traditions, customs, physiognomy and dia- 
 lects support this theory. Although they are Moham- 
 medans, they practice several ancient Jewish rites. The 
 American missionaries who have schools and churches 
 among them are continually running up against customs 
 and traditions which remind them forcibly of the Mosaic 
 teachings. They have considerable literature, poetry, his- 
 tory, biography, philosophy and ecclesiastical works, and 
 some of their priests have large libraries of native books, 
 which, the missionaries say, are full of suggestions of the 
 Old Testament. 
 
 One of the most successful missionaries in that part of 
 the world was an apostate Polish Jew named Rev. Isidore 
 Lowenthal, a remarkable linguist and a man of profound 
 learning. He translated the Bible and several other 
 religious books into Pashto, the language of the Afghans, 
 and was convinced that he shared with them the same 
 ancestry. A story that Is invariably related to travelers 
 up in that country refers to his untimely taking off, for he 
 was accidentally shot by one of his household attendants, 
 
340 MODERN INDIA 
 
 and his epitaph, after giving the usual statistical infor- 
 mation, reads : 
 
 He was shot accidentally by his chookidar. 
 Well done, thou good and faithful servant. 
 I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Afghanistan question, is, so to speak, in statu quo. 
 The ameer is friendly to the British, but asserts his inde- 
 pendence with a great deal of firmness and vigor, and is 
 an ever-present source of anxiety. He receives a sub- 
 sidy of $600,000 from the British government, which is 
 practically a bribe to induce him not to make friends with 
 Russia, and yet there are continual reports concerning 
 Russian intrigues in that direction. He declines to re- 
 ceive an English envoy and will not permit any English- 
 men to reside at his court. The Indian government is 
 represented at Kabul by a highly educated and able native 
 Indian, who is called a diplomatic agent, and has diplo- 
 matic powers. He reports to and receives instructions 
 from Lord Curzon directly, and is the only medium of 
 communication between the ameer and the British gov- 
 ernment. The present ameer has been on the throne 
 only since the death of his father, the ameer Abdur 
 Rahman, in October, 1901, and for several months there 
 was considerable anxiety as to what policy the young 
 man, Habi Bullah Khan, would adopt. During the last 
 three years of the old man's life he yielded his power 
 very largely to his son, and selected him twenty wives 
 from the twenty most influential families in the kingdom 
 in order to strengthen his throne. Although Habi Bullah 
 is not so able or determined as his father, he has held his 
 position without an insurrection or a protest, and is no 
 longer in danger of being overthrown by one of the bloody 
 
THE FRONTIER QUESTION 341 
 
 conspiracies which have interlarded Afghanistan history 
 for the last two centuries. 
 
 The British were fortunate in having a viceroy at that 
 critical period who was personally acquainted with the 
 young ameer and a friend of his father. When Lord 
 Curzon was a correspondent of the London Times, before 
 he entered parliament, he visited Cabul and formed pleas- 
 ant relations with the late ameer, who speaks of him in 
 most complimentary terms in his recently published 
 memoirs. The old man happened to die during the dark- 
 est period of the South African war, and Russia took 
 occasion at that critical moment to demand the right to 
 enter into independent diplomatic negotiations with Af- 
 ghanistan for the survey of a railroad across that country. 
 Only a few years before, Great Britain fought a war with 
 Afghanistan and overthrew Shere Ali, the shah, because 
 he received a Russian ambassador on a similar errand, 
 after having refused to allow a British envoy to reside at 
 his court or even enter his country. And there is no 
 telling what might have happened had not Lord Curzon 
 taken advantage of his personal relations and former 
 friendship. Russia selected a significant date to make 
 her demands. It was only a fortnight after the British 
 repulse at Spion Kop, and Ladysmith was in a hopeless 
 state of siege. Such situations have a powerful influence 
 upon semi-civilized soldiers, who are invariably inclined 
 to be friendly to those who are successful at arms. How- 
 ever, Lord Curzon had influence enough to hold the 
 ameer to the British side, and the latter has ever since 
 shown a friendly disposition to the British and has given 
 the Russians no public encouragement. 
 
 The official report of the viceroy to the secretary of 
 state for India m London, covering the ten years ending 
 
342 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Dec. 31, 1902, contains the following interesting para- 
 graph concerning the greatest source of anxiety : 
 
 "Relations with Afghanistan have been peaceful 
 throughout the decade. Although there is reason to be- 
 lieve that Afghan influence among the turbulent tribes 
 on the northwestern frontier was at times the cause of 
 restlessness and disorder, the Durand agreement of 1893, 
 followed by the demarcation of the southern and nearly 
 all the eastern Afghan boundary, set a definite limit to the 
 legitimate interference of Afghanistan with the tribes 
 included in the British sphere of influence. Under that 
 agreement the annual subsidy paid by the British govern- 
 ment to the ameer was increased from i8o,ooo to £120,- 
 000. A further demarcation, which aflfected alike Af- 
 ghanistan and the British sphere, was that which resulted 
 from the Pamir agreement concluded with Russia in 1895. 
 Russia agreed to accept the River Oxus as her southern 
 boundary as far east as the Victoria Lake. Thence to the 
 Chinese frontier a line was fixed by a demarcation com- 
 mission. This arrangement involved an interchange of 
 territories lying on the north and south bank of the Oxus 
 respectively between Afghanistan and Bokhara, which 
 was carried out in 1896. The Ameer of Afghanistan also 
 undertook to conduct the administration of Wakkhan, 
 lying between the new boun'dary and the Hindu Kush, in 
 return for an increase of his subsidy. 
 
 "Under the strong rule of the late ameer the country 
 for the most part enjoyed internal peace, but this was 
 broken by the revolt of the Hazaras in 1892, which v.as 
 severely suppressed. In 1895-96 Kafiristan, a region 
 which the delimitation included in the Afghan sphere of 
 influence, was subjugated. Political relations of the gov- 
 ernment of India with the late and with the present ameer 
 
THE FRONTIER QUESTION 343 
 
 have been friendly, and were undisturbed by the murder 
 of the British agent at Kabul by one of his servants in 
 1895, an incident which had no political significance. In 
 the year 1894-95 His Highness sent his second son, 
 Shahzada Nasrulla Khan, to visit England as the guest 
 of Her Majesty's government. The Ameer Abdur Rah- 
 man, G. C. B., died in October, 1901, and was peacefully 
 succeeded by his eldest son, Habi Bullah Khan, G. C. 
 M. G." 
 
 There is no doubt as to what Lord Curzon knows and 
 believes concerning the aggressive policy of Russia in 
 Asia, because, shortly before he was appointed viceroy of 
 India, he wrote an article on that subject for a London 
 magazine, which is still what editors call "live matter." 
 
 "The supreme interest," he said, "lies in the physical 
 fact that it (the northwestern frontier) is the only side 
 upon which India has been or ever can be invaded by 
 land, and in the political fact that it confronts a series of 
 territories inhabited by wild and turbulent, by independ- 
 ent or semi-independent tribes, behind whom looms the 
 grim figure of Russia, daily advancing into clearer out- 
 line from the opposite or northwest quarter. It is to 
 protect the Indian Empire, its peoples, its trades, its 
 laboriously established government and its accumulated 
 wealth from the insecurity and possible danger arising 
 from a further Russian advance across the intervening 
 space that the frontier which I am about to describe has 
 been traced and fortified. Politicians of all parties have 
 agreed that, while the territorial aggrandizement of Rus- 
 sia is permissible over regions where she replaces bar- 
 barism even by a crude civilization, there can be no excuse 
 for allowing her to take up a position in territories ac- 
 knowledging our sway, where she can directly menace 
 
344 MODERN INDIA 
 
 British interests in India, or indirectly impose an exces- 
 sive strain upon the resources and the armed strength of 
 our eastern dominions. The guardianship of the frontier 
 is, therefore, an act of defense, not of defiance, and is an 
 elementary and essential obligation of imperial states- 
 manship. 
 
 "Originally it was supposed that there were but three 
 or four passes or cracks by which this mountain barrier 
 was perforated, and that if British soldiers only stood 
 sentinel at their exits an invader would have no other 
 alternative but to come down and be annihilated. Mod- 
 ern surveys, however, have shown that the number of 
 available passes is nearer 300 than three, a discovery 
 which has suggested the policy of establishing friendly 
 relations with the tribes who hold them, and thus acquir- 
 ing an indirect control over their western mouths. For 
 just as the main physical feature of the frontier is this 
 mountain wall, with its narrow lateral slits, so the main 
 political feature is the existence in the tracts of country 
 thus characterized of a succession of wild and warlike 
 tribes, owing allegiance to no foreign potentate, but 
 cherishing an immemorial love for freedom and their 
 native hills." 
 
 Although the idea of consolidating these border tribes 
 into a single province, with an administrator and staff of 
 officers of its own directly under the control of the vice- 
 roy, was first suggested by the late Lord Lytton, it has 
 been the good fortune of Lord Curzon to carry it into 
 effect, and it is considered one of the wisest and most 
 notable events of his administration of Indian affairs. 
 The new community, which is called the Northwest 
 Frontier Province, was organized in February, 1901, and 
 takes in the wide stretch of territory which is described 
 
THE FRONTIER QUESTION 345 
 
 by its name. It is directly governed by an agent of the 
 governor general and a chief commissioner, who allow 
 the widest liberty and jurisdiction to the local chiefs con- 
 sistent with peace and good government. The new sys- 
 tem has been working since 1902, and while it is yet too 
 early to calculate the results, the improvement already 
 noticed in the condition of affairs, peace, industry, morals, 
 the increase of trade and the development of natural re- 
 sources justifies the expectation that the semi-barbarous 
 tribes will soon yield to the influences of civilization and 
 settle down into industrious, law-abiding and useful 
 citizens. At least their organization and discipline under 
 the command of tactful and discreet English officers gives 
 to India a frontier guard composed of 30,000 or 40,000 
 fearless fighters, who will be kept on the skirmish line and 
 will prove invaluable through their knowledge of the 
 country and the mountain trails in case of a border war. 
 The military position of England has thus been strength- 
 ened immensely, and when the railways now being con- 
 structed in that direction are completed, so that regular 
 British and native troops may be hurried to the support 
 of the wild and warlike tribes whenever it is necessary, a 
 constant cause of anxiety will be removed and the north- 
 western frontier will be thoroughly protected. 
 
 The problems connected with the aggressive policy of 
 Russia on the Indian frontier are very serious from every 
 point of view to every Englishman, and whenever the time 
 comes, if it ever does come, the frontier will be defended 
 with all the power of the British Empire. The aggres- 
 siveness of Russia has been felt throughout India much 
 more than anyone can realize who has not lived there and 
 come in contact with affairs. It has been like a dark 
 cloud continually threatening the horizon ; it has disturbed 
 
346 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the finances of the country ; it has entered into the con- 
 sideration of every public improvement, and has, directly 
 or indirectly, influenced the expenditure of every dollar, 
 the organization of the army, the construction of fortifi- 
 cations and the maintenance of a fleet. The policy of Lord 
 Curzon is to bring all the various frontier tribes, which 
 aggregate perhaps 2,000,000, under the influence of Brit- 
 ish authority. To make them friends ; to convince them 
 that loyalty is to their advantage ; to organize them so that 
 they shall be a source of strength and not of weakness or 
 peril ; to teach them the blessings of peace and industry ; 
 to avoid unnecessary interference with their tribal affairs ; 
 to promote the construction of railways, highways and 
 all facilities of communication ; to extend trade, introduce 
 schools and mechanical industries, and to control the 
 traffic in arms and ammunition. The commercial and the 
 military policies are closely involved and in a measure 
 one is entirely dependent upon the other. 
 
 South of Afghanistan, and the westernmost territory 
 under British control, is Baluchistan, whose western 
 boundary is Persia and the Arabian Sea. It was for- 
 merly a confederation of semi-independent nomadic 
 tribes under the Khan of Kalat, with a population of about 
 a million souls, but twenty-six years ago, after the 
 Afghan war of 1878, those tribes were taken under the 
 protection of the Indian government and Sir Robert 
 Sanderman, a wise, tactful and energetic man, assisted 
 the native rulers to reorganize and administer their 
 aflfairs. During that period the condition of the country 
 has radically changed. British authority is now supreme, 
 the primitive conditions of the people have been greatlv 
 improved, they have settled down almost universally in 
 permanent towns and villages, many of them are culti- 
 
THE FRONTIER QUESTION 347 
 
 vating the soil, producing valuable staples and improving 
 their condition in every respect. The country consists 
 largely of barren mountains, deserts and stony plains. 
 Its climate is very severe. The summers are intensely 
 hot and the winters intensely cold. The wealth of the 
 people is chiefly in flocks and cattle, and they are now 
 raising camels, which is a profitable business. The chief 
 exports are wool and hides, which are all clear gain now 
 that the cultivation of the fields provides sufficient wheat, 
 barley, millet, potatoes and other vegetables to supply the 
 wants of the people. Fruits grown in the valleys are 
 superior to anything produced in other parts of Asia. 
 The apples and peaches of Baluchistan are famous and 
 are considered great delicacies in the Indian market. 
 There is supposed to be considerable mineral in the 
 mountains, although they have never been explored. Iron, 
 lead, coal, asbestos, oil and salt have been found in abun- 
 dance, and some silver. 
 
 The efforts of the government have been to direct the 
 attention of the people to mechanical industries rather 
 than to mining, because it is important to break them of 
 their nomadic tendencies and accustom them to permanent 
 homes and regular employment. They resemble the 
 Bedouins of Arabia in many respects and prefer to follow 
 their flocks and herds over the mountains rather than 
 settle down in the towns. The men are hardy, brave, hon- 
 est and intelligent, but are desperate fighters and of cruel 
 disposition ; the women resemble the Chinese more than 
 the Arabs, and are bright, active and ingenuous. The 
 sense of humor is highly developed and the laws of hos- 
 pitality are similar to those of the Arabs. 
 
 Although the British agent in Baluchistan has auto- 
 cratic powers whenever he finds it necessary to exercise 
 
348 MODERN INDIA 
 
 them, the Khan of Kalat is allowed to govern the country 
 in his own way, and to all appearances is the independent 
 authority. He is given a subsidy of about $75,000 a year 
 on his private account from the Indian government, and 
 his official income averages about 500,000 rupees a year, 
 which is equivalent to about $175,000. With this he pays 
 the expenses of his government and maintains a body- 
 guard of about 250 native cavalry. Only once has the 
 British government found it necessary to interfere in an 
 arbitrary manner. On that occasion Khudadad, the late 
 ruling khan, murdered his prime minister in a fit of pas- 
 sion, and upon investigation it was found that he had put 
 to death also without trial a number of innocent subjects. 
 The Viceroy of India permitted him to abdicate and gave 
 him a generous allowance, which was much better treat- 
 ment than the villain was entitled to. His son, Mir Mah- 
 mud, who succeeded him, turns out to be an excellent 
 ruler. He is intelligent, conscientious, and has the wel- 
 fare of his people at heart. 
 
 There is little of interest except the political question 
 and the peculiar appearance of the people up in that par- 
 ticular part of India. It has been debatable ground as 
 far back as the earliest days of Aryan colonization. 
 Although Peshawur is regarded as a modern city, it is 
 mentioned by the historians who wrote up the campaigns 
 of Alexander the Great, and if you will go up there the 
 guides will show you where he crossed the river. The 
 city has a population of about 80,000, of which three- 
 fourths are Moslems. They come from every part of 
 Asia, and the streets and bazaars swarm with quaint 
 costumes and strange faces unlike any you have ever seen 
 before. And w^hat strikes a traveler most forcibly is 
 their proud demeanor, their haughty bearing and the in- 
 
THE FRONTIER QUESTION 349 
 
 dependent spirit expressed by every glance and every 
 gesture. They walk like kings, these fierce, intolerant 
 sons of the desert, and their costumes, no matter how 
 dirty and trail-worn they may be, add to the dignity and 
 manliness of their deportment. 
 
 They are so different, these haughty Mohammedans, 
 from the bare-legged, barefooted, cringing, crouching 
 creatures you see farther south. It would seem impossi- 
 ble for these men to stoop for any purpose, but the Ben- 
 galese, the Hindustani and the rest of the population of 
 the southern provinces, do everything on the ground. 
 They never use chairs or benches, but always squat upon 
 the floor, and all their work is done upon the ground. 
 Carpenters have no benches, and if they plane a board 
 they place it upon the earth before them and hold it fast 
 with their feet. The blacksmith has his anvil on the floor ; 
 the goldsmith, the tailor and even the printer use the 
 floor for benches, and it is the desk of the letter writer 
 and the bookkeeper. 
 
 It looks queer to see a printer squatting before a case 
 of type, and even queerer to see a person writing a letter 
 with a block of paper spread out before him on the 
 ground. But that is the Hindu custom. You find it 
 everywhere throughout India, just as you will find every- 
 body, men, women and children, carrying their loads, no 
 matter how light or how heavy, upon their heads. If an 
 errand boy is sent from a shop with a parcel he never 
 touches it with his hands, but invariably carries it on top 
 of his turban. One morning I counted seven young 
 chaps with "shining morning faces" on their way to 
 school, every one of them with his books and slate upon 
 his head. The masons' helpers, who are mostly women, 
 carry bricks and mortar upon their heads instead of in 
 
350 MODERN INDIA 
 
 hods on their shoulders, and it is remarkable what heavy 
 loads their spines will support. At the railway stations 
 the luggage and freight is carried the same way. The 
 necks and backs of the natives are developed at a very 
 early age. If a porter can get assistance to hoist it to 
 the top of his head he will stagger along under any 
 burden all right. I have seen eight men under a grand 
 piano and two men under a big American roller top 
 desk, and in Calcutta, where one of the street railway 
 companies was extending its tracks, I saw the workmen 
 carry the rails upon their heads. 
 
XXII 
 
 THE ARMY IN INDIA 
 
 The regular army in India is maintained at an average 
 strength of 200,000 men. The actual number of names 
 upon the pay rolls on the 31st of December, 1904, was 
 203,114. This includes several thousand non-fighting 
 men, a signal corps, a number of officers engaged in semi- 
 civil or semi-military duties, those on staff detail and 
 those on leave of absence. The following is an exact 
 statement : 
 
 BRITISH 
 
 Cavalry, three regiments 2,101 
 
 Artillery, eighty-seven batteries 14,424 
 
 Infantry, forty-five battalions 42,151 
 
 Engineers, one battalion 204 
 
 58,880 
 
 NATIVES 
 
 Cavalry, forty regiments 24,608 
 
 Artillery, fourteen batteries 6,235 
 
 Infantry, 126 battalions 108,849 
 
 Engineers, twenty-three battalions 3,925 
 
 143,617 
 
 Officers on staff duty 617 
 
 Grand total 203,1 14 
 
 351 
 
352 MODERN INDIA 
 
 This regular and permanent military force is supple- 
 mented by native armies in the various independent states, 
 which are only indirectly under the command of the com- 
 mander-in-chief and are not well organized, except in one 
 or two of the provinces. There is a reserve corps con- 
 sisting of 22,233 rnen who have served in the regular 
 army and are now upon what we call the retired list. 
 They may be called out at any time their services are 
 needed. There is also a volunteer force numbering 
 29,500 men, including cavalry, artillery, infantry and 
 marines, many of them under the command of retired 
 officers of the regular army ; and the employes of several 
 of the great railroad companies are organized into mili- 
 tary corps and drill frequently. There is also a military 
 police under the control of the executive authorities of the 
 several provinces, making altogether about 300,000 men 
 capable of being mobilized on short notice in any emer- 
 gency, about one-third of them being Englishmen and 
 two-thirds natives. 
 
 In 1856, before the great mutiny, the British forces in 
 India consisted of less than 40,000 Europeans and more 
 than 220,000 natives, besides about 30,000 contingents, as 
 they were called, maintained by the rulers of the native 
 states and at their expense. The greater part of the 
 artillery was manned by native soldiers under European 
 officers. Three-fourths of the native soldiers participated 
 in the mutiny. The Madras forces in southern India and 
 the Sikhs in the Punjab were not only loyal but rendered 
 valuable services in suppressing the revolt. On the reor- 
 ganization of the army, after the mutiny was suppressed, 
 it was decided that there should never be more than two 
 natives to one European in the service; that the artillery 
 should be manned by Europeans exclusively, and that all 
 
THE ARMY IN INDIA 353 
 
 the arsenals and supply stations should be in their charge. 
 Since the reorganization there has been an average of 
 60,000 British and 120,000 native troops in India. All 
 the artillery has been manned by Europeans, the British 
 troops have been garrisoned at stations where they can 
 render the most prompt and efficient service, and all of 
 the cantonments, as the European camps are called, all 
 the fortresses and arsenals, are connected with each other 
 and with Bombay and Calcutta by railway. When the 
 mutiny broke out in 1857 there were only about 400 miles 
 of railway in India, and it was a matter of great difficulty, 
 delay and expense to move troops any distance. To-day 
 India has nearly 28,000 miles of railway, which has all 
 been planned and constructed as a part of the national 
 defense system. In 1857 it took between three and four 
 months for a relief party to reach Delhi from the sea- 
 board. To-day ten times the force could be sent there 
 from any part of India within as many days. 
 
 Another vital error demonstrated by the mutiny was 
 the former plan of drawing soldiers from a single caste. 
 They were all under the same influence ; all had the same 
 interests and were governed by the same prejudices, and 
 could be easily united for the same purpose. Now caste 
 is not recognized in the army. Recruits are drawn from 
 every tribe and every caste, and men of different races, 
 religions and provinces are thrown together in the same 
 company and are not allowed to serve in the locality where 
 they were enlisted. Enlistments are entirely vol- 
 untary. The natives are armed, equipped and clothed 
 by the state, but provide their own food, for which 
 they receive a proper allowance. This is necessary 
 in order that they may regulate their own diet and obey 
 the laws of their caste. There are also what are called 
 
354 MODERN INDIA 
 
 "class company regiments," composed chiefly of men who 
 are serving second enlistments. That is, men of the same 
 race and caste are organized into separate companies, so 
 that a regiment may have two companies of Sikhs, two 
 companies of Brahmins, two companies of Rajputs, two 
 companies of Mohammedans, two companies of Gurkhas 
 and companies of other tribes or religious sects which 
 neutralize each other and are inspired by active rivalry. 
 
 Race outbreaks and religious collisions very seldom 
 occur in India these days, but the hostility between the 
 several sects and races is very deep. The Mohammedan 
 still dreams of the day when his race shall recover control 
 of the Indian Empire and turn the Hindu temples into 
 mosques. The Sikhs hate the Mohammedans as well as 
 the Hindus. None of the sects is without its prejudices. 
 
 The most efficient section of the native army is com- 
 posed of the Sikhs, the Gurkhas, who are enlisted in 
 Nepaul, and the Pathans, who come from the hill tribes 
 in the far northwest. These are all vigorous, hardy races, 
 fearless, enduring and fond of military service. It would 
 be difficult to find in any country better soldiers than they 
 make, and their numerical strength in the Indian army 
 could be doubled without difficulty in case more soldiers 
 were needed. 
 
 All cities, towns and villages have regularly organized 
 police forces, consisting entirely of natives and numbering 
 about 700,000. In the larger cities and towns the chief 
 officers are European, and throughout the entire country 
 the preference in making appointments to this force is 
 given to men who have served in the regular army. 
 About 170,000 officers and men have this distinction and 
 make very efficient police. 
 
 The supreme authority over the army in India is vested 
 
THE ARMY IN INDIA 355 
 
 by law in the viceroy and is exercised through a member 
 of the council of state, known as the secretary of military 
 affairs, who corresponds to our Secretary of War. The 
 active command is in the person of the commander-in- 
 chief, who is also a member of the council of state by vir- 
 tue of his office. The present commander-in-chief is Lord 
 Kitchener, the hero of Khartoum and of the recent Boer 
 war. Lord Roberts was formerly in command of the 
 Indian army. He served in that country for thirty-eight 
 years in various capacities. He went as a youngster dur- 
 ing the mutiny, was with the party that relieved Delhi, 
 and saw his first fighting and got his "baptism of blood" 
 upon the "ridge," which was the scene of the fiercest 
 struggle between the English rescuers and the native 
 mutineers. He has recently published a readable book 
 giving an account of his experience during thirty-eight 
 years of military service in India. 
 
 Lord Kitchener is assisted by four lieutenant generals, 
 each having command of one of the four military divisions 
 into which the empire is divided. The Calcutta division 
 is under the command of General Sir Alfred Gaseley, who 
 led the combined international forces to the relief of the 
 besieged legations in Peking. There is a general staff 
 similar to that recently organized in the United States 
 army, which looks after the equipment, the feeding, the 
 clothing and the transportation of the army with an enor- 
 mous corps of clerks and subordinate officers. 
 
 The officers of the staff corps number 2,700, and are 
 appointed from the line of the native army upon the merit 
 system. Many of them were educated at the military 
 colleges in England ; many others have seen service in the 
 regular army of great Britain, and have sought transfer 
 because the pay is better and promotion is more rapid in 
 
356 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the Indian than in the British army. However, before 
 an officer is eligible for staff employment in India he must 
 serve at least one year with a British regiment and one 
 year with a native regiment, and must pass exaininations 
 in the native languages and on professional subjects. This 
 is an incentive to study, of which many young officers 
 take advantage, and in the Indian army list are several 
 pages of names of officers who have submitted to ex- 
 aminations and have demonstrated their ability to talk, 
 read and write one or more of the native tongues. The 
 gossips say that during his voyage from London to Bom- 
 bay two years ago Lord Kitchener shut himself up in his 
 stateroom and spent his entire time refreshing his knowl- 
 edge of Hindustani. 
 
 No officer is allowed a responsible command unless he 
 can speak the native language of the district in which he 
 is serving, and, as there are ii8 different dialects spoken 
 in India, some of the older officers have to be familiar 
 with several of them. Such linguistic accomplishments 
 are to the advantage of military officers in various ways. 
 They are not only necessary for their transfer to staflf 
 duty, but insure more rapid promotion, greater responsi- 
 bilities and render them liable at any time to be called 
 upon for important service under the civil departments. 
 Several thousand officers are now occupying civil and 
 diplomatic posts, and are even performing judicial func- 
 tions in the frontier provinces. 
 
 The armies of the native states look formidable on 
 paper, but most of them are simply for show, and are 
 intended to gratify the vanity of the Hindu princes who 
 love to be surrounded by guards and escorted by soldiers 
 with banners. Some of the uniforms of the native armies 
 are as picturesque and artistic as those of the papal 
 
THE ARMY IN INDIA 357 
 
 guards at the Vatican, and on occasions of ceremony they 
 make a brave show, but with the exception of two or 
 three of the provinces, the native forces would be of very 
 Httle value in a war. 
 
 The military authorities of India are exceedingly proud 
 of the morale and the hygienic condition of their troops, 
 and the records of the judge advocates and medical de- 
 partments show a remarkable improvement in these re- 
 spects, which is largely due to the scientific construction 
 of barracks, to the enforcement of discipline and regula- 
 tions framed to suit climatic conditions, a better knowl- 
 edge of the effect of food and drink and the close 
 observance of the laws of hygiene. The climate is very 
 severe, particularly upon Europeans, who must take care 
 of themselves or suflfer the consequences. The death 
 rate in all armies in time of peace should be much lower 
 than in the ordinary community, because recruits are 
 required to submit to physical examinations, and none 
 but able-bodied men are enlisted. The death rate in the 
 army of the United States before our soldiers were sent 
 to the Philippines was remarkably low, only three or 
 four per 1,000 per year. 
 
 Some years ago in the army of India the mortality 
 from disease was as high as sixty-nine per 1,000, but by 
 the introduction of the reforms mentioned the rate had 
 been reduced to nineteen per 1,000 in 1880, and for the 
 last ten years has been less than sixteen per 1,000. 
 According to the opinion of those best qualified to know, 
 this is largely due to the introduction of what are known 
 as Regimental Institutes, or Soldiers' Clubs, correspond- 
 ing closely to the canteens which were abolished in our 
 army a few years ago, but which are considered as im- 
 portant a part of the military organization in India as a 
 
358 MODERN INDIA 
 
 hospital or arsenal. After fifty years of experience in 
 India the British mihtary authorities gave up the attempt 
 to prohibit drinking in the army. Lord Kitchener says: 
 "You might as well try to hasten the millennium." And 
 for twenty years they have been using various measures, 
 some of which have proved practicable and others imprac- 
 ticable, to promote temperance. The result is an almost 
 unanimous conclusion upon the part of those who have 
 given the subject study that the most effective means of 
 preventing intemperance and promoting discipline and 
 morals are the soldiers' institutes and clubs, in which 
 liquor is sold in small quantities under strict regulations 
 enforced by the enlisted men themselves. In other words, 
 they have stopped trying to prohibit drinking because 
 they found it was impossible, and are now trying to re- 
 duce it to the minimum. The placing of the regulation 
 of the liquor traffic very largely with the men themselves, 
 and removing the semblance of official interference of 
 authority, is said to be one of the most effective arrange- 
 ments, and the very fact that drinking is not forbidden 
 and that liquor can be obtained at any moment within a 
 few steps of the barracks is of itself a most wholesome 
 influence, because it takes away the desire, and all the 
 spirit of adventure and risk. As long as human nature 
 is stubborn and contrary, men will do out of pure mischief 
 what they are told must not be done. These matters 
 have a deep interest for the viceroy, Lord Kitchener, 
 the commander-in-chief, and other prominent officials of 
 the army in India. Lord Kitchener takes an active part 
 in the temperance work and in the administration of the 
 soldiers' institutes, and has had an officer detailed to look 
 after their arrangement and management. Not long ago 
 the viceroy traveled seven hundred miles to deliver an 
 
THE ARMY IN INDIA 359 
 
 address at an anniversary of the Army Temperance 
 Association. 
 
 Colonel De Barthe, secretary of military affairs in the 
 cabinet of the viceroy, to whom I was sent for informa- 
 tion on this subject, said : "The lives of the British 
 soldiers in India are very tedious and trying, especially 
 during the hot summers, which, in the greater part of the 
 empire, last for several months. The climate is enervat- 
 ing and is apt to reduce moral as well as physical vitality. 
 There are few diversions. The native quarters of the 
 large cities are dreadful places, especially for young 
 foreigners. I cannot conceive of worse, from both a 
 sanitary and a moral point of view. But they have a cer- 
 tain novelty ; they are picturesque and oftentimes attrac- 
 tive and entertaining to homesick soldiers, who, as is 
 natural, yield easily to temptations to dissipation. 
 
 "And the best remedy is to furnish counter attractions 
 and give the men resorts that are comfortable and at- 
 tractive, where they will not be subject to the restraint of 
 authority or come in contact with their officers too often. 
 The government, as well as philanthropic societies, is 
 doing everything that it can to provide such places, to 
 protect the enlisted man as far as possible from the temp- 
 tations to which he is subjected, and to furnish him a 
 loafing place where he will feel at home, where he may 
 do as he likes to all reasonable limits, and where he can 
 obtain a moderate amount of pure liquor without feeling 
 that he is violating regulations and subjecting himself to 
 punishment. 
 
 "We formerly had bars at which soldiers could buy 
 pure liquor, instead of the poisonous stuff that is sold 
 them in the native quarters of Indian cities, but we soon 
 concluded that they defeated their own purposes. Being 
 
36o MODERN INDIA 
 
 situated at convenient locations, soldiers would patronize 
 them for the love of liquor, and induce others to do the 
 same for the sake of companionship. This promoted in- 
 temperance, because the soldiers went to the bar only to 
 drink, and for no other reason. There were no reading- 
 rooms or loafing places or attractive surroundings, and 
 they were not permitted to remain at the bar after they 
 had been served with one drink. 
 
 "Those bars have been abolished, and, under the pres- 
 ent system, an effort is being made to furnish homelike, 
 attractive club-houses, where the enlisted men may pass 
 their leisure time in comfortable chairs, with pleasant 
 surroundings, games, newspapers, magazines, books, 
 writing materials and a well-filled library. We give them 
 a lunch-room and a bar which are much more attractive 
 than any of the native bazaars can offer. The}' are al- 
 lowed to drink liquor on the premises in moderation, and 
 the regulations of the institute are enforced by a com- 
 mittee of the men themselves, which appeals to their 
 honor, their pride and their love for their profession. A 
 drunken enlisted man is quite as much of a humiliation to 
 his comrades as a drunken officer would be to his asso- 
 ciates, and the men feel quite as much responsibility in 
 restraining each other and in preventing their comrades 
 from getting into trouble as their officers — perhaps more. 
 To this spirit, this esprit de corps, we appeal, and find 
 after several years of experience that the institutes pro- 
 mote temperance, health, discipline and contentment 
 among the men. 
 
 "The surgeons of the service will tell you, and their 
 reports contain the details, that the largest amount of 
 disease and the worst cases are due to contact with natives 
 m the bazaars of the cities near which our barracks are 
 
THE ARMY IN INDIA 361 
 
 located. It is impossible to keep the men out of them, 
 and their visits can only be lessened by furnishing counter 
 attractions. The soldiers' institutes have proved to be the 
 strongest ever devised. Anyone who knows India can 
 tell instantly where soldiers' institutes have not been es- 
 tablished by examining the sick reports of the officers of 
 the medical corps. 
 
 "You cannot prevent men from drinking any more 
 than you can prevent them from swearing or indulging 
 in any other vice," continued Colonel De Barthe, "but you 
 can diminish the amount of vice by judicious measures, 
 and that we believe is being done by our institutes, with 
 their libraries, reading-rooms, lunch-rooms, cafes, amuse- 
 ment-rooms, bars, theaters for concerts, lectures and 
 amateur dramatic performances. The government does 
 not put in billiard tables or any other kind of games. We 
 allow the men to do that for themselves, and they pay 
 for them out of the profits of the bar. Nor do we furnish 
 newspapers. We require the soldiers to subscribe for 
 themselves. There is a good reason for this which 
 should be obvious to everyone who has ever had experi- 
 ence in such matters. We furnish the building, provide 
 the furniture, fuel, lights, fill the shelves of the library 
 with excellent standard books of history, travels, biogra- 
 phy, fiction and miscellaneous works, and have a way 
 of shifting the books between stations occasionally, so 
 that the men will not always have the same titles before 
 their eyes. We furnish a piano for the amusement hall, 
 and all of the permanent fixtures of the place, but the 
 men are required to do their share, which gives them 
 personal interest in the institute, increases their respon- 
 sibility and takes away much of the official atmosphere. 
 If we should provide magazines and newspapers they 
 
362 MODERN INDIA 
 
 would not be so well satisfied with them. There would 
 always be more or less grumbling and criticism. Hence 
 it is better for them to make their own choice. If we 
 should provide crockery and glassware for the refresh- 
 ment-rooms it would be more frequently broken. The 
 same rule prevails in other matters, and, what is still 
 more important, we want to remove as much of the offi- 
 cial relation as possible. The management of the insti- 
 tute is in the hands of soldiers, under the supervision of 
 officers, who simply act as checks or as inspectors to see 
 that things go straight. 
 
 "We encourage the men to organize singing clubs, 
 amateur theatricals and other entertainments in which 
 they take a great interest and considerable talent is some- 
 times developed. They have their own committees look- 
 ing after these things, which is a healthful diversion ; and 
 the institute is the headquarters of all their sporting or- 
 ganizations and committees. The officers of the barracks 
 never go there unless they are invited, but when the men 
 give an entertainment every officer and his family attend 
 and furnish as much assistance as possible." 
 
 Colonel De Barthe showed me the rules for the govern- 
 ment of these institutes, which may be found in paragraph 
 658 of the Army Regulations for India, and begin with 
 the words: "In order to promote the comfort and pro- 
 vide for the rational amusement of noncommissioned offi- 
 cers and men, to supply them with good articles at reason- 
 able prices and to organize and maintain the means for in- 
 door recreation, a regimental institute shall be provided," 
 etc. It is then provided that there shall be a library, 
 reading-rooms, games and recreation-rooms, a theater or 
 entertainment hall, a refreshment-room and a separate 
 room for the use of and under the exclusive jurisdiction 
 
THE ARMY IN INDIA 363 
 
 of the Army Temperance Association. The reading-room 
 is to be furnished with a library and the amusement-room 
 with a piano ; card playing is permitted in the recreation- 
 room, but not for money or other stakes of value; the 
 discussion of religious and political subjects within the 
 institute is forbidden, and religious exercises are not 
 allowed to be conducted in the building except in the 
 room of the Army Temperance Association. 
 
 Every noncommissioned officer and private is entitled 
 to the use of the institute except when excluded for pro- 
 fane or other improper language, for intoxication or other 
 misconduct, for such time as the committee in charge shall 
 deem advisable. The management of the institute is 
 entrusted to several committees of non-commissioned offi- 
 cers and soldiers and an advisory committee of three or 
 more officers. These committees have control of all sup- 
 plies, receipts and expenditures, the preservation of order, 
 the enforcement of the rules, and are enjoined to make 
 the institute as attractive as possible. A committee of 
 three, of whom the chairman must be a sergeant, is 
 authorized to purchase supplies ; an inventory of the stock 
 must be taken once a month ; there may be a co-operative 
 store if deemed advisable by the commanding officer, at 
 which groceries, provisions and general merchandise may 
 be sold to the men at cost price ; liquor may be sold in a 
 separate room of limited dimensions, under the super- 
 vision of a committee of which a sergeant is chairman, 
 and that committee, by assigning good reasons, has the 
 power to forbid its sale to any person for any length of 
 time. No spirituous liquor except rum can be kept or 
 sold ; that must be of the best quality and no more than 
 one dram may be sold to any person within the hour, and 
 only one quart of malt liquor. Beside these, aerated 
 
364 MODERN INDIA 
 
 waters and other "soft drinks" must be provided, witli 
 coffee, tea, sandwiches and other refreshments as re- 
 quired. The profits of the institute may be devoted to 
 the Hbrary, reading-room and recreation department, the 
 purchase of g>mnastic apparatus, etc., and articles for the 
 soldiers' mess, and may be contributed to the widows and 
 orphans' fund, if so determined by the patrons of the 
 institution. 
 
 Those, in short, are the means used by the Indian gov- 
 ernment to promote temperance and morality in its army, 
 and everyone who has experience and knowledge of the 
 practical operation of such affairs approves them. In 
 addition to the institutes described, the Army Temper- 
 ance Association, which is entirely unofficial and com- 
 posed of benevolent people in private life, has established 
 in several of the large cities of India, where garrisons 
 are stationed, soldiers' clubs, which also prove very 
 efficacious. They are located in the bazaars and other 
 parts of the cities frequented by soldiers and where the 
 most mischief is usually done. They are clubs pure and 
 simple, with reading and writing-rooms, games, music, 
 restaurants, billiard-rooms and bars at which rum, beer, 
 ale and other liquors are sold. There is also a devotional- 
 room, in which religious meetings are held at stated 
 times. These clubs are managed by private individuals 
 in connection with committees of noncommissioned offi- 
 cers and enlisted men, and several of them represent in- 
 vestments of $15,000 and $20,000. In some cases a 
 small membership fee is charged. They have proved 
 very effective in catching human driftwood, and provide 
 a place where men who are tempted may have another 
 chance to escape the consequences. They are conducted 
 upon a very liberal plan, and after pay day soldiers who 
 
THE ARMY IN INDIA 365 
 
 start out for a debauch, as so many regularly do, are 
 accustomed to leave their money and valuables with the 
 person in charge before plunging into the sinks of vice, 
 where so many men find pleasure and diversion. 
 
XXIII 
 
 MUTTRA, ALIGARH, LUCKNOW, CAWNPORE 
 
 On the way back from the frontier are plenty of de- 
 hghtful places at which the journey may be broken. 
 You can have another glimpse of the most beautiful build- 
 ing in the world at Agra, and can take a day's excursion 
 to Muttra, one of the seven sacred cities of India, the 
 birthplace of Krishna, second in rank and popularity of 
 the Hindu gods. The trains are conveniently arranged ; 
 they take you over from Agra in the morning and bring 
 you back at night, which is well, because there is no 
 hotel at Muttra, only what they call a dak bungalow, or 
 lodging-house, provided by the municipal authorities for 
 the shelter of travelers who have no friends to put them 
 up. These dak bungalows are quite common in India, 
 for comparatively few of the towns have hotels that a 
 European or American would care to patronize. In 
 Japan the native hotels are miracles of neatness and 
 sweetness. In India, and the rest of Asia, they are, as 
 far as possible, the reverse. I suppose it would be 
 possible for a white man to survive a day or two in a 
 native hotel, but the experience would not be classified 
 as pleasure. Several of the native princes have provided 
 dak bungalows for public convenience and comfort, and 
 one or two are so hospitable as to furnish strangers food 
 as well as lodging free of cost. The maharajas of 
 Baroda, Jeypore, Bhartpur, Gwalior and several other 
 
 366 
 
MUTTRA, ALIGARH, LUCKNOW 367 
 
 provinces obey the scriptural injunction and have many 
 times entertained angels unawares. 
 
 It is an ancient custom for the head of the state or the 
 municipal authorities or the commercial organizations or 
 the priests to provide free lodgings for pilgrims and 
 strangers ; indeed, there are comparatively few hotels at 
 which natives are required to pay bills. When a Hindu 
 arrives in a strange town he goes directly to the temple of 
 his religion and the priest directs him to a place where 
 he can stop. It is the development of ancient patriarchal 
 hospitality, and the dak bungalow, which is provided for 
 European travelers in all hotelless towns and cities, is 
 simply a refinement of the custom. There are usually 
 charges, but they are comparatively small. You are ex- 
 pected to furnish your own bedding, towels, etc., and 
 there are no wire spring mattresses. Sometimes iron 
 cots are provided and often bunks are built in the wall. 
 If there are none all you have to do is to wrap the 
 drapery of your couch around you and select a soft place 
 on the floor. A floor does not fit my bones as well as 
 formerly, but it is an improvement upon standing or 
 sitting up. Usually the dak bungalows are clean. Occa- 
 sionally they are not. This depends upon the character 
 and industry of the person employed to attend them. The 
 charges are intended to cover the expense of care and 
 maintenance, and are therefore very moderate, and every- 
 body is treated alike. 
 
 After a long, dusty drive in the suburbs of Delhi one 
 day I crept into the grateful shade of a dak bungalow, 
 found a comfortable chair and called for some soda to 
 wash down the dust and biscuits to hold my appetite 
 down until dinner time. I was sipping the cool drink, 
 nibbling the biscuits and enjoying the breeze that was 
 
368 MODERN INDIA 
 
 blowing through the room, when the attendant handed 
 me a board about as big as a shingle with a hole drilled 
 through the upper end so that it could be hung on a wall. 
 Upon the board was pasted a notice printed in four lan- 
 guages, English, German, French and Hindustani, giving 
 the regulations of the place, and the white-robed khit- 
 matgar pointed his long brown finger to a paragraph that 
 applied to my case. I paid him lo cents for an hour's 
 rest under the roof. It was a satisfaction to do so. The 
 place was clean and neat and in every way inviting. 
 
 At many of the railway stations beds are provided by 
 the firm of caterers who have a contract for running the 
 refreshment-rooms. Most of the stations are neat and 
 comfortable, and you can always find a place to spread 
 your bedding and lie down. There is a big room for 
 women and a big room for men. Sometimes cots are 
 provided, but usually only hard benches around the walls. 
 There are always washrooms and bathrooms adjoining, 
 which, of course, are a great satisfaction in that hot and 
 perspiring land. The restaurants at the railway stations 
 are usually good, and are managed by a famous caterer 
 in Calcutta, but the men who run the trains don't always 
 give you time enough to eat. 
 
 On the passenger trains, ice, soda water, ginger ale, 
 beer and other soft drinks are carried by an agent of the 
 eating-house contractor, who furnishes them for 8 cents 
 a bottle, and it pays him to do so, for an enormous 
 quantity is consumed during the hot weather. The 
 dust is almost intolerable and you cannot drink the local 
 water without boiling and filtering it. The germs of 
 all kinds of diseases are floating around in it at the rate 
 of 7,000,000 to a spoonful. A young lady who went 
 over on the ship with us didn't believe in any such non- 
 
GROUP OF FAMOUS URAHMIN PUNDITS 
 
MUTTRA, ALIGARH, LUCKNOW 369 
 
 sense and wasn't afraid of germs. She drank the local 
 water in the tanks on the railway cars and wherever else 
 she found it, and the last we heard of her she was in a 
 hospital at Benares with a serious case of dysentery. 
 
 Mark Twain says that there is no danger from germs 
 in the sacred water of the Ganges, because it is so filthy 
 that no decent microbe will live in it ; and that just about 
 describes the situation. It is a miracle that the deaths 
 are so few. Millions of people fill their stomachs from 
 that filthy stream day after day because the water washes 
 away their sins, and I do not suppose there is a dirtier 
 river in all the universe, nor one that contains more con- 
 tagion and filth. It receives the sewage of several of the 
 largest cities of India. Dead bodies of human beings 
 as well as animals can be seen floating daily. From one 
 end of it to the other are burning ghats where the bodies 
 of the dead are soaked in it before they are placed upon 
 the funeral pyres, and when the bones and flesh are con- 
 sumed the ashes are cast upon the sacred stream. But 
 the natives observe no sanitary laws, and the filth in 
 which they live and move and have their being is simply 
 appalling. 
 
 But I started out to tell you about Muttra, which is a 
 very ancient place. It is mentioned by Pliny, the Latin 
 historian, Ptolemy, the Egyptian geographer, and other 
 writers previous to the Christian era, and is associated 
 with the earliest Aryan migrations. Here Krishna, the 
 divine herdsman, was born. He spent his childhood 
 tending cattle in the village of Gokul, where are the 
 ruins of several ancient temples erected in his honor, but, 
 although he seems to have retained his hold upon the 
 people, they have allowed them to crumble, and the pro- 
 fuse adornments of the walls and columns have been 
 
370 MODERN INDIA 
 
 shamefully defaced. At one time it is said there were 
 twenty great monasteries at that place, with several hun- 
 dred monks, yet nothing is left of thcni but piles of stone 
 and rubbish. All have been destroyed in successive wars, 
 for Muttra has been the scene of horrible atrocities by the 
 Mohammedans who have overrun the country during sev- 
 eral invasions. Therefore most of the temples are mod- 
 ern, and they are too many to count. There is a succes- 
 sion of them on the banks of the river the whole length 
 of the city, interspersed with hospices for the entertain- 
 ment of pilgrims, and palaces of rich Hindus, who go 
 there occasionally to wash away their sins, just as the 
 high livers of London go to Homburg and Carlsbad to 
 restore their digestions. One of the palaces connected 
 with the temple, built of fine white stone in modern style, 
 belongs to Lakshman Das, a Hindu who the guide told 
 us is the richest man in India. The many merchants of 
 Muttra all seem prosperous. The city is visited by hun- 
 dreds of thousands of pilgrims every year, all of whom 
 bring in more or less money, and the houses and shops 
 are of a more permanent and imposing order of archi- 
 tecture than those of Delhi, Agra and other places. It 
 has the appearance of being a rich community. 
 
 The shade trees along the streets swarm with monkeys 
 and parrots, which are sacred, and when you go there 
 you mustn't jump if a grinning monkey drops down upon 
 your shoulders in a most casual manner and chatters in 
 your ear. The animals are very tame. They are fed 
 by the pilgrims, who gain great merit with the gods 
 thereby, and the river is filled with sacred turtles, which 
 are also objects of great interest and devotion. 
 
 Only two towns in India are more sacred than Muttra. 
 One is Benares and the other is Jagernath, or Juggernaut, 
 
MUTTRA, ALIGARH, LUCKNOW 371 
 
 which is about 150 miles south of Calcutta on the shore of 
 the Bay of Bengal. There is the great idol which we 
 have all heard about from the missionaries, and, I regret 
 to say, some have been guilty of a good deal of misrepre- 
 sentation and exaggeration. When I was a boy I read 
 m Sunday-school books the most heart-tearing tales about 
 the poor heathen, who cast themselves down before the 
 car of Juggernaut and were crushed to Hfeless pulp under 
 its monstrous wheels. This story has been told thousands 
 of times to millions of horrified listeners, but an inquiry 
 into the facts does not confirm it. It is true that on cer- 
 tain holy days the great image of Juggernaut, or Jager- 
 nath, whichever way you choose to spell it, and it weighs 
 many tons, is placed upon a car and the car is drawn 
 through the crowded streets by thousands of pilgrims, 
 who cast flowers, rice, wheat, palm leaves, bamboo wisps, 
 sweetmeats and other offerings in its way. Occasionally 
 in the throng that presses around the image some one is 
 thrown down and has the life trampled out of him ; on 
 several occasions people have been caught by the wheels 
 or the frame of the car and crushed, and at rare intervals 
 some hysterical worshiper has fallen in a fit of epilepsy 
 or exhaustion and been run over, but the official records, 
 which began in 18 18, show only nine such occurrences 
 during the last eighty-six years. 
 
 I have great respect for missionaries, but I wish some 
 of them would be more charitable in disposition, a little 
 more accurate in statement, and not print so much trash. 
 In Muttra you have a good illustration of their usefulness. 
 The American Methodists commenced work there in 
 1887. No educational or evangelical work had ever been 
 attempted previous to that time, but the men and women 
 who came were wise, tactful and industrious, and th^ 
 
372 MODERN INDIA 
 
 result may be seen in a dozen or more schools, with sev- 
 eral thousand pupils, a flourishing, self-supporting church, 
 a medical mission, a deaconesses' home and training 
 school, a printing establishment and bookshop which is 
 self-supporting and a large number of earnest, intelligent 
 converts. Wherever you go in heathen lands you will 
 find that wisdom, judgment, tact and ability, when applied 
 in any direction, always show good results, but all mis- 
 sionaries, I regret to say, are not endowed with those 
 qualities or with what Rev. Dr. Hepburn of Japan calls 
 "sanctified common sense," and the consequences are 
 sometimes deplorable. 
 
 "By their works ye shall know them." 
 
 At Aligarh, a town of 50,000 inhabitants on the railway 
 between Agra and Delhi, is a very rare and indeed a 
 unique institution — a Moslem university and printing 
 press — the only ones in India, and the only ones in the 
 world established and conducted on modern lines. The 
 university is modeled upon the English plan. It has an 
 English president and dean and several English profess- 
 ors, all of them graduates of the University of Cam- 
 bridge. The preparatory school has an English head 
 master and assistant, and in the faculty is a professor of 
 physical culture, who has brought manly sports among 
 the students to a standard unequaled elsewhere in India. 
 The Aligarh University has the best football team and 
 the best cricket team in the empire. 
 
 This remarkable institution was founded in 1875 by Sir 
 Syed Ahmed Khan, a Mohammedan lawyer and judge 
 on the civil bench, for the education of his co-religionists 
 in order that they may take places in the world beside 
 the graduates of English and European universities and 
 exercise a similar influence. He recognized that the 
 
MUTTRA, ALIGARH, LUCKNOW 373 
 
 Moslem population of India must degenerate unless it 
 was educated ; that it could not keep pace with the rest 
 of the world. He was shocked at the ignorance and the 
 bigotry of his fellow Mohammedans and at their stubborn 
 conservatism. He was a sincere believer in his own re- 
 ligion, and insisted that the faith of Islam, properly under- 
 stood, was as much in the interest of truth and progress 
 in every branch of human knowledge and activity as the 
 Christian religion, and he devoted his entire fortune and 
 collected contributions from rich Mohammedans for the 
 establishment of a school that should be entirely up-to- 
 date and yet teach the Koran and the ancient traditions 
 of Islam. There are now about 500 students, who come 
 from the most important families in India. They live 
 together in dormitories built about the college, dine in 
 the same refectory and enjoy a healthy, active college life. 
 Foreign and Christian professors fill the chairs of science, 
 mathematics and languages, while able mullahs give in- 
 struction in the Koran and direct the students in the 
 daily exercise of the Mohammedan rites. 
 
 Sir Syed Ahmed Khan met with bitter opposition and 
 animosity from the conservative element of his faith, and 
 while some of his opponents admitted the purity and nobil- 
 ity of his motive, he was often accused of apostasy, but his 
 noble life was spared until March, 1898, and he was per- 
 mitted to see his institution enjoying great popularity and 
 usefulness. There is at present a movement among the 
 Mohammedans of India for the higher education of the 
 members of that sect. It is the fruit of his labors and the 
 men who are leading it are graduates of the Aligarh 
 College. 
 
 Lucknow and Cawnpore are usually neglected by 
 American travelers, but are sacred objects of pilgrimage 
 
374 AIODERN INDIA 
 
 to all Englishmen because of their terrible memories of the 
 awful struggles of the mutiny of the sepoys, or native 
 soldiers, in 1857, ^"d their heroic defense and heroic 
 relief by a handful of British troops under Sir Henry 
 Havelock, General James Outram and Sir Colin Camp- 
 bell. Although more has been written about Lucknow, 
 yet the tragedy of Cawnpore is to me the more thrilling 
 in several particulars, and that city was the scene of the 
 greater agony. 
 
 Upon the shores of the Ganges River is a pretty park 
 of sixty acres, in the center of which rises a mound. 
 That mound covers the site of a well in which the bodies 
 of 250 of the victims of the massacre were cast. It is 
 inclosed by a Gothic wall, and in the center stands a 
 beautiful figure of an angel in white marble by an Italian 
 artist. Her arms are crossed upon her breast and in each 
 hand she holds a palm branch. The archway is inscribed : 
 
 "These are They which Came 
 Out of Great Tribulation." 
 
 Chiseled in the wall that marks the circle of the well 
 are these words: 
 
 "Sacred to the Perpetual Memory of a great Company 
 of Christian people, chiefly Women and Children, who 
 near this Spot were cruelly Murdered by the Followers 
 of the Rebel Nana Dhundu Panth of Bithur, and cast, 
 the Dying with the Dead, into the Well below on the 
 XVth'day of July, MDCCCLVII." 
 
 The story of Cawnpore has no parallel in history. It 
 might have been repeated at Peking two or three years 
 ago, for the conditions existed there. In the summer of 
 1857 sixty-one English artillerymen and about 3,000 
 sepoys were attached to the garrison at that place, where 
 
MUTTRA, ALIGARH, LUCKNOW 375 
 
 about 800 foreigners resided. Upon the 6th of June the 
 native troops rose in mutiny, sacked the paymaster's office 
 and burned several of the pubHc buildings. The fright- 
 ened foreigners fled into one of the larger buildings of the 
 government, where they hastily threw up fortifications 
 and resisted a siege for three weeks. Their position hav- 
 ing become untenable, they arranged terms of capitulation 
 with Nana Sahib, the leader of the mutiny, who had been 
 refused the throne and the allowance paid by the British 
 government to the late maharaja, although the latter had 
 adopted him in legal form and had proclaimed him his 
 heir. This was one of the principal reasons for the 
 mutiny, and without considering the question of justice 
 or injustice. Nana Sahib satiated his desire for vengeance 
 under the most atrocious circumstances. Having ac- 
 cepted the surrender of the little garrison upon his per- 
 sonal assurances of their security and safe conduct to 
 Allahabad, he placed the survivors, about 700 in number, 
 in boats upon the Ganges River and bade them good-by. 
 As soon as the last man was on board and the word was 
 given to start down the stream, the blast of a bugle was 
 heard. At that signal the crews of the boats leaped into 
 the water, leaving the passengers without oars, and im- 
 mediately the straw roofs of the boats burst into flames 
 and showers of bullets were fired from lines of infantry 
 drawn up on the banks. Most of those who jumped into 
 the water to escape the flames were shot down by the 
 bullets. And many who escaped both and endeavored 
 to reach the shore were sabered by cavalrymen who 
 awaited them. One boat load escaped. 
 
 The survivors of this incident, about 200 in number, 
 were led back into the city, past their old homes, now in 
 smoldering ruins, and were locked up in two rooms 
 
376 MODERN INDIA 
 
 twenty feet long and ten feet wide. They had no beds, 
 no furniture, no blankets, not even straw to lie upon. 
 They were given one meal a day of coarse bread and 
 water, and after suffering untold agonies for fifteen days 
 were called out in squads and hacked to pieces by the 
 ruffians of Nana's guard. Their bodies were cast into 
 the well, which was afterward filled with earth and has 
 since been the center of a memorial park. 
 
 The siege of Lucknow was somewhat different. When 
 the mutiny broke out Sir Henry Lawrence, the governor, 
 concentrated his small force of British soldiers, with 
 eleven women and seven children, in his residency, which 
 stood in the center of a park of sixty acres. It was a 
 pretentious stone building, with a superb portico and 
 massive walls, and protected by deep verandas of stone. 
 Anticipating trouble, he had collected provisions and am- 
 munition and was quite well prepared for a siege, 
 although the little force around him was attacked by 
 more than 30,000 merciless, bloodthirsty fanatics. The 
 situation was very much as it was at Peking, only worse, 
 and the terrific fire that was kept up by the sepoys may 
 be judged by the battered stump of an old tree which 
 still stands before the ruins of the residency. Although 
 about three feet in diameter, it was actually cut down 
 by bullets. 
 
 On the second day of the siege, while Sir Henry Law- 
 rence was instructing Captain Wilson, one of his aids, 
 as to the distribution of rations, a shell entered his apart- 
 ment, exploded at his side and gave him a mortal wound. 
 With perfect coolness and calm fortitude he appointed 
 Major Banks his successor, instructed him in details as to 
 the conduct of the defense, exhorted the soldiers of the 
 garrison to their duty, pledged them never to treat with 
 
MUTTRA, ALIGARH, LUCKNOW 377 
 
 the rebels, and under no circumstances to surrender. He 
 gave orders that he should be buried "without any fuss, 
 like a British soldier," and that the only epitaph upon his 
 tombstone should be: 
 
 "Here lies Henry Lawrence, Who Tried to do his 
 Duty ; May God have Mercy upon his soul." 
 
 He died upon the Fourth of July. Upon the i6th 
 Major Banks, his successor in command, was killed and 
 the authority devolved upon Captain Inglis, whose widow, 
 the last survivor of the siege, died in London Feb. 4, 
 1904. The deaths averaged from fifteen to twenty daily, 
 and most of the people were killed by an African sharp- 
 shooter who occupied a commanding post upon the roof 
 of a neighboring house and fired through the windows of 
 the residency without ever missing his victim. The sol- 
 diers called him "Bob the Nailer." The latter part of 
 August he was finally killed, but not until after he had 
 shot dozens of men, women and children among the be- 
 sieged. In order to protect themselves from his shots and 
 those from other directions the windows of the residency 
 were barricaded, which shut out all the air and ventila- 
 tion, and the heat became almost intolerable. A plague 
 of flies set in which was so terrible that the nervous 
 women and children frequently became frantic and hys- 
 terical. 
 
 On the 5th of September a faithful native brought the 
 first news that a relieving force under Sir Henry Have- 
 lock and General James Outram was nearing Lucknow. 
 On the 25th Havelock fought his way through the streets 
 of the city, which were packed with armed rebels, and on 
 the 26th succeeded in reaching the residency. But, al- 
 though the relief was welcome, and the sufferings of the 
 besieged were for the moment forgotten, it was consid- 
 
378 MODERN INDIA 
 
 crcd impracticable to attempt an evacuation because the 
 whole party would have been massacred if they had left 
 the walls. A young Irish clerk in the civil service, named 
 James Kavanagh, undertook to carry a message to Sir 
 Colin Campbell and succeeded in passing through the 
 lines of the enemy. On the i6th of November Campbell 
 fought his way through the streets with 3,500 men, and 
 the relief of Lucknow was finally effected. 
 
 A few days later Sir Henry Havelock, the hero of the 
 first relief, died from an attack of dysentery from which 
 he had long been suffering, and his body was buried 
 under a wide-spreading tree in the park. The tomb of 
 Havelock is a sacred spot to all soldiers. A lofty obelisk 
 marks the resting place of one of the noblest of men and 
 one of the bravest and ablest of soldiers. 
 
 The residency is naturally a great object of interest, 
 but the cemetery, gay with flowers and feathery bamboos, 
 is equally so, because there lies the dust of 2,000 men and 
 women who perished within the residency, in the attempts 
 at relief and in other battles and massacres in that neigh- 
 borhood during the mutiny. 
 
 Nana Sahib, who was guilty of these awful atrocities, 
 was never punished. In the confusion and the excitement 
 of the fighting he managed to make his escape, and mys- 
 teriously disappeared. It is now known that he took 
 refuge in the province of Nepal, where he was given an 
 asylum by the maharaja, and remained secretly under 
 his protection, living in luxury for several years until his 
 death. It is generally believed that the British authorities 
 knew, or at least suspected, his whereabouts, but consid- 
 ered it wiser to ignore the fact rather than excite a con- 
 troversy and perhaps a war with a powerful native 
 province. 
 
MUTTRA, ALIGARH, LUCKNOW 379 
 
 There is little of general interest in Cawnpore. Luck- 
 now, however, is one of the most prosperous and busy 
 towns in India, The people are wealthy and enterprising. 
 It has probably more rich natives than any other city of 
 India except Bombay, and their houses are costly and 
 extravagant, but in very bad architectural taste. Mil- 
 lions of dollars have been spent in tawdry decorations and 
 ugly walls, but they are partially redeemed by beautiful 
 parks and gardens. Lucknow has the reputation of being 
 the home of the Mohammedan aristocracy in India, and 
 a large number of its wealthiest and most influential citi- 
 zens belong to that faith. Their cathedral mosque is one 
 of the finest in the country. The imambra connected 
 with it is a unique structure and contains the largest room 
 in the world without columns, being 162 feet long by 54 
 feet wide, and 53 feet high. It was built in 1784, the year 
 of the great famine, in order to give labor and wages to a 
 hungry people, and is one solid mass of concrete of simple 
 form and still simpler construction. 
 
 The architect first made a mold or centering of timber, 
 bricks and earth, which was covered with several layers 
 of rubble and coarse concrete several feet in thickness. 
 After it had been allowed a year or two to set and dry, the 
 mold or centering was removed, and this immense struc- 
 ture, whose exterior dimensions are 263 by 145 feet, stood 
 as solid as a rock, a single piece of cement literally cast 
 in a mold, and, although it has been standing 125 years, it 
 shows no signs of decay or deterioration. The word im- 
 ambra signifies "the patriarch's palace," The big room 
 is used for the celebration of the Moslem feast of Mohur- 
 ram, which commemorates the martyrdom of the sons of 
 Ali, the immediate descendants of Mahomet, 
 
 The royal palaces of Lucknow, formerly occupied by 
 
38o MODERN INDIA 
 
 the native kings, are considered the worst architecture of 
 India, although they represent the expenditure of mil- 
 lions of dollars. But the hotels are the best in all the 
 empire, except the new one of which I have spokeii in 
 Bombay. For this reason and because it is a beautiful 
 city, travelers find it to their comfort and advantage to 
 stop there for several days longer than they would stay 
 elsewhere, and enjoy driving about the country visiting 
 the different parks and gardens. 
 
 One of the most novel excursions in India may be made 
 to the headquarters of the commissariat department of 
 the army, about three miles out of town, where a herd of 
 elephants is used for heavy lifting and transportation pur- 
 poses. The intelligence, patience and skill of the great 
 beasts are extraordinary. They are fed on "chow patties," 
 a mixture of hay, grains and other forage, and are al- 
 lowed a certain number for each meal. Each elephant 
 always counts his as soon as they are delivered to him, 
 and if spectators are present the guardkeepers frequently 
 give them a short allowance, whereupon they make a ter- 
 rible fuss until they get what they are entitled to. 
 
 There are some quaint customs among the farmers in 
 that part of the country. The evil eye is as common and 
 as much dreaded as in Italy, and people who are sus- 
 pected of that misfortune are frequently murdered by un- 
 known hands to rid the community of a common peril 
 and nuisance. 
 
 Good and bad omens occur hourly; superstitions are 
 as prevalent as in Spain. If a boy be born, for example, 
 a net is hung over the doorway and a fire is lighted upon 
 the threshold to prevent evil spirits from entering the 
 house. 
 
 The commencement of the farming season is celebrated 
 
MUTTRA, ALIGARH, LUCKNOW 381 
 
 with ceremonies. The first furrow in the village is 
 plowed by a committee of farmers from the neighbor- 
 hood. The plow is first worshiped and decorated. The 
 bullock or camel which draws it is covered with garlands 
 of flowers, bright-colored pieces of cloth and rosettes of 
 ribbon are braided into its tail and hung upon its horns. 
 Behind the plow follows "the sower," who is also dec- 
 orated with flowers and ornaments, has a red mark upon 
 his forehead and his eyelids colored with lampblack. He 
 drops seed into the furrow. Behind him comes a second 
 man, who carefully picks up every grain that has fallen 
 outside of the furrow. When the furrow is finished the 
 farmers assemble at some house in the neighborhood and 
 have a dinner of simple food. There are similar cere- 
 monies connected with the harvest. Some of them are 
 said to be inherited from their ancient Aryan ancestors ; 
 others are borrowed from the Arabs, Persians and 
 Chinese. 
 
XXIV 
 
 CASTE AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 
 
 Everybody wlio keeps in touch with the slowly chang- 
 ing social conditions in India is convinced that the caste, 
 the most important fetich of the Hindus, is gradually los- 
 ing its hold, particularly upon the upper classes, because 
 they cannot adjust it to the requirements of modern civil- 
 ization and to the foreign customs they imitate and value 
 so highly. Very high authorities have predicted in my 
 hearing that caste will be practically obsolete within the 
 next fifty years, and entirely disappear before the end of 
 the century, provided the missionaries and other reform- 
 ers will let it alone and not keep it alive by controversy. 
 It is a sacred fetich, and when it is attacked the loyal 
 Hindu is compelled to defend and justify it, no matter 
 what his private opinion of its practicability and ad- 
 vantages may be, but, if foreigners will ignore it, the pro- 
 gressive, cultured Hindus will themselves discard it. 
 The influences of travel, official and commercial rela- 
 tions, and social intercourse with foreigners, personal am- 
 bition for preferment in the military and the civil service, 
 the adoption of modern customs and other agencies are at 
 work undermining the institution, and when a Hindu 
 finds that its laws interfere with his comfort or conven- 
 ience, he is very certain to ignore them. The experience 
 of the Maharaja of Jeypore, told in a previous chapter, 
 is not unusual. His case is only one of thousands, for 
 
 382 
 
CASTE AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 383 
 
 nearly every native prince and wealthy Hindu has broken 
 caste again and again without suffering the slightest dis- 
 advantage, which has naturally made them indifferent. 
 
 Travelers see very little of this peculiar institution, and 
 it is so complicated that they cannot comprehend it with- 
 out months of study. They notice that half the men they 
 meet on the streets have odd looking signs upon their 
 foreheads. Ryas, our bearer, calls them "god marks," 
 but they are entirely artificial, and indicate the particular 
 deity which the wearer is in the habit of worshiping, as 
 well as the caste to which he belongs. A white triangle 
 means Krishna, and a red circle means Siva — the two 
 greatest gods — or vice versa, I have forgotten which, and 
 Hindus who are inclined to let their light shine before 
 men spread on these symbols with great care and regular- 
 ity. At every temple, every market place, at the places 
 where Hindus go to bathe, at the railway stations, public 
 buildings, in the bazaars, and wherever else multitudes are 
 accustomed to gather, you will find Brahmins squatting 
 on a piece of matting behind trays covered with little 
 bowls filled with different colored ochers and other 
 paints. These men know the distinctive marks of all the 
 castes, and for small fees paint the proper signs upon 
 the foreheads of their patrons, who wear them with great 
 pride. You frequently see them upon children also ; and 
 on holidays and religious anniversaries, when the people 
 come out for pleasure, or during special ceremonials at 
 their temples, nearly everybody wears a "god mark," just 
 as he would wear a badge denoting his regiment and 
 corps at a Grand Army reunion. 
 
 The more you study the question of caste the more 
 confusing it becomes, but it is interesting and important 
 because it is the peculiar institution of India and is not 
 
384 MODERN INDIA 
 
 found in any other country in the world. Tlie number of 
 castes is almost infinite. The 200,000,000 or more Hin- 
 dus in this empire are divided into a vast number of in- 
 dependent, well-organized and unchangeable groups, 
 which are separated by wide differences, who cannot eat 
 together or drink from the same vessel or sit at the same 
 table or intermarry. There have been, and still are, em- 
 inent and learned philosophers and social scientists who 
 admire caste as one of the highest agencies of social per- 
 fection, and they argue that it alone has prevented the 
 people of India from relapsing into barbarism, but 
 foreigners in general and Christian missionaries in partic- 
 ular take a very different view, and many thoughtful and 
 patriotic Hindus publicly declare that it is the real and 
 only cause of the wretched condition of their people and 
 the greatest obstacle to their progress. Mr. Shoshee 
 Chunder Dutt, a very learned Hindu and author of a 
 standard book entitled "India, Past and Present," declares 
 that "civilization has been brought to a standstill by its 
 mischievous restrictions, and there is no hope of its being- 
 remedied until those restrictions are removed." 
 
 It is curious to learn that the word "caste" is not 
 Hindu at all, but Portuguese, and that instead of being 
 an ancient feature of the Hindu religion, it is compara- 
 tively a modern idea. 
 
 The first form of religion in India was the worship of 
 nature, and the chief gods of the people were the sun, 
 fire, water and other natural phenomena, which were in- 
 terpreted to the ignorant masses by priests, who gradually 
 developed what is now called Brahminism, and, in the 
 course of time, for social reasons, divided the people into 
 four classes: First, the Brahmins, which include the 
 priestly, the literary and the ruling portions of the popu- 
 
CASTE AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 385 
 
 lation ; second, the Kshatryas, or warriors, who were like 
 the knighthoods of Europe in the middle ages ; then the 
 Vaisyas, or landowners, the farming population, and 
 those engaged in mercantile and manufacturing indus- 
 tries; and finally the Sudras, or servants who attended 
 the other castes, toiled in the fields and did the heavy 
 labor of the community. 
 
 Gradually these grand divisions became divided into 
 sections or social groups. Trades, professions, tribes and 
 clans, and particularly those who worshiped the same 
 god, naturally drifted together and were watchful of their 
 mutual interests. As there are as many gods in the 
 Hindu pantheon as there are inhabitants of India, these 
 religious associations are very numerous. Occupation is 
 not a sign of caste. Every caste, and particularly the 
 Brahmins, have members in every possible occupation. 
 Nearly every cook in India is a Brahmin, which is a mat- 
 ter of almost imperative necessity, because no man can 
 partake of food cooked or even touched by persons of 
 lower caste. The Brahmins are also more numerous than 
 any other caste. According to the recent census they 
 number 14,888,000, adult men only being counted. The 
 soldier caste numbers more than 10,000,000, the farmer 
 caste and the leather workers have nearly as many. 
 Nearly 20 per cent of the population of India is included 
 in those four castes, and there are forty or fifty sub-castes, 
 each having more than 1,000,000 members. 
 
 There are more than 1,800 groups of Brahmins, who 
 have become so numerous and so influential that they are 
 found everywhere. The number in the public service is 
 very large, representing about 35 per cent of the entire 
 mass of employes of the government in every capacity 
 and station, and they have the largest proportion of edu- 
 
386 MODERN INDIA 
 
 cated men. It is a popular delusion that every Brahmin 
 is a priest, when the fact is that they are so numerous that 
 not more than a small percentage is employed in religious 
 functions. But for more than 2,000 years they have 
 maintained their superiority unchallenged. This is not 
 only due to their pretensions, but to their intellectual 
 force. They have been the priests, the writers, the rulers, 
 the legislators of all India, because of their force of char- 
 acter and mental attainments, and will always preserve 
 their supremacy through the same forces that enabled 
 them to acquire it. 
 
 The laws of caste, as explained by Mr. Shoshee Chun- 
 der Dutt, the Hindu writer referred to above, provide : 
 
 1. That individuals cannot be married who do not be- 
 long to the same caste. 
 
 2. That a man may not sit down to eat with another 
 who is not of his own caste. 
 
 3. That his meals must be cooked either by persons of 
 his own caste or a Brahmin. 
 
 4. That no man of an inferior caste is to touch his 
 cooked rations, or the dishes in which they are served, or 
 even to enter his cook room. 
 
 5. That no water or other liquid contaminated by the 
 touch of a man of inferior caste can be made use of — 
 rivers, tanks and other large sheets of water being, how- 
 ever, held to be incapable of defilement. 
 
 6. That articles of dry food, excepting rice, wheat, etc., 
 do not become impure by passing through the hands of 
 a man of inferior caste so long as they remain dry, but 
 cannot be taken if they get wet or greased. 
 
 7. That certain prohibited articles, such as cows' flesh, 
 pork, fowls, etc., are not to be taken. 
 
CASTE AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 387 
 
 8. That the ocean or any other of the boundaries of 
 India cannot be crossed over. 
 
 The only acts which now lead to exclusion from castes 
 are the following: 
 
 1. Embracing Christianity or Mohammedanism. 
 
 2. Going to Europe, America or any other foreign 
 country. 
 
 3. Marrying a widow. 
 
 4. Throwing away the sacred thread. 
 
 5. Eating beef, pork or fowl. 
 
 6. Eating food cooked by a Mohammedan, Christian 
 or low caste Hindu. 
 
 7. Officiating as priest in the house of a low caste 
 Sudra. 
 
 8. By a female going away from home for an immoral 
 purpose. 
 
 9. By a widow becoming pregnant. 
 
 When a Hindu is excluded from caste his friends, rela- 
 tives and fellow townsmen refuse to partake of his hos- 
 pitality ; he is not invited to entertainments in their 
 houses ; he cannot obtain wives or husbands for his chil- 
 dren ; even his own married daughters cannot visit him 
 without running the risk of being excluded from caste ; 
 his priest and even his barber and washerman refuse to 
 serve him ; his fellow caste men ostracize him so com- 
 pletely that they refuse to assist him even in sickness or 
 at the funeral of a member of his household. In some 
 cases the man excluded from caste is debarred from the 
 public temples. 
 
 To deprive a man of the services of his barber and his 
 washerman is becoming more difficult these days, but the 
 other penalties are enforced with more or less rigor. 
 
 They tell us that foreigners cannot appreciate the im- 
 
388 MODERN INDIA 
 
 portance of caste. Murray's guide book ^varns the trav- 
 eler to remember that fact, and says that the religion of 
 the Hindu amounts to little more than the fear of de- 
 mons, of the loss of caste and of the priests. Demons 
 have to be propitiated, the caste rules are strictly kept and 
 the priests presented with gifts. Great care has to be 
 taken not to eat food cooked by a man of inferior caste ; 
 food cooked in water must not be eaten together by peo- 
 ple of different castes, and castes are entirely separated 
 with regard to marriage and trade. A sacred thread of 
 cotton is worn by the higher castes. Washing in the 
 sacred rivers, particularly the Ganges, and especially at 
 Allahabad, Benares, Hardwar and other exceptionally 
 holy spots, is of efficacy in preserving caste and cleansing 
 the soul of impurities. 
 
 "The traveler should remember," says the guide book, 
 "that all who are not Hindus are outcasts, contact with 
 whom may cause the loss of caste to a Hindu. He should 
 not touch any cooking or water holding utensil belonging 
 to a Hindu, nor disturb Hindus when at their meals ; he 
 should not molest cows, nor shoot any sacred animal, and 
 should not pollute holy places by his presence if any ob- 
 jection is made. The most sacred of all animals is the 
 cow, then the serpent, and then the monkey. The eagle 
 is the attendant of Vishnu, the bull of Siva, the goose of 
 Brahma, the elephant of Indra, the tiger of Durga, the 
 buffalo of Rama, the rat of Ganesh, the ram of Agni, the 
 peacock of Kartikkeya, the parrot of Kama (the god of 
 love), the fish, the tortoise and boar are incarnations of 
 Vishnu, and the crocodile, cat, dog, crow, many trees, 
 plants, stones, rivers and tanks are sacred." 
 
 Nevertheless, Brahmins are very clever in dodging an 
 issue when it is necessary for their convenience. For ex- 
 
CASTE AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 389 
 
 ample, when a modern water supply was introduced for 
 the first time into a city of India the problem arose, How 
 could the Hindus use water that came from hydrants, in 
 face of the law which prohibited them drinking it from 
 vessels which may have been touched by people of an- 
 other caste? After much reflection and discussion the 
 pundits decided that the payment of water rates should be 
 considered an atonement for violating the ordinances of 
 their religion. 
 
 There has been some improvement in the condition of 
 women in India, and it is due almost entirely to the Chris- 
 tian missionaries who have brought about reforms which 
 could not have occurred otherwise, although, at the same 
 time, the spirit of modern progress has not been without 
 its influence upon the native families. Remarkable in- 
 stances have occurred in which native women have at- 
 tained distinction in literature, scholarship and science. 
 Several have passed university entrance examinations ; a 
 few have obtained degrees. In 1903 there were 264 
 women in collegiate institutions throughout the empire, 
 more than has ever been known before. There has been 
 a gradual increase in their number. In 1893-4 there were 
 only 108; two years later there were no. In 1898-9 the 
 number jumped to 174, and in 1900-1 it reached 205, 
 hence you will see that the advance has been normal and 
 regular and there have been no steps backward. The 
 greatest progress has been in the southern part of the 
 empire, where women are less secluded and the 
 prejudice against their education is not so strong. Never- 
 theless 99 per cent of the women of India are absolutely 
 illiterate, and among the total of 144,409,000 only 
 1,433,000 can read and write ; 75 per cent of them can do 
 no more. If a census were taken of those who can read 
 
390 MODERN INDIA 
 
 and understand an ordinary novel or a book of travel the 
 total would be less than 250,000, and counted among the 
 literates are all the girls now in school who have ad- 
 vanced as far as the first reader. 
 
 In the United Provinces, the richest and proudest of In- 
 dia, where the arts and sciences have advanced quite rap- 
 idly among men, only 56,000 women out of a total of 23,- 
 078,000 can read and write, and that, as I said before, in- 
 cludes the girl children in the schools. In the Punjab 
 Province, which lies in the north, out of a total of 12,- 
 369,000 women and girls only 42,000 can read and write 
 and at least 50 per cent of them are under 12 years of age. 
 The total number of girls now attending school in India 
 is only 446,282 out of a total population of 144,409,000 
 women, but even this small number shows most encour- 
 aging improvement during the last ten years. In 1893-4 
 the girls in school were only 375,868, but since then there 
 has been a gradual increase every year — 400,709 in 
 1897-8, 425,914 in 1899-1900 and 429,645 in 1900-01. In 
 the Central Province, which ought to be one of the most 
 progressive in India, out of a total female population of 
 23,078,000 only 20,821 girls altogether are in school. 
 
 But this does not fairly indicate the influence of women 
 in India, where they take a larger and more active share 
 in the responsibilities of the family and in the practical 
 affairs of life than one w'ould suppose. The mother of a 
 family, if she is a woman of ability and character, is al- 
 ways the head of the household, and the most influential 
 person in it, and as long as she lives she occupies the 
 place of honor. Women often manage estates and com- 
 mercial affairs, and several have shown remarkable ex- 
 ecutive ability and judgment. Several of the native states 
 have been ruled by women again and again, and the Ran- 
 
CASTE AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 391 
 
 nee of Sikkim is to-day one of the most influential per- 
 sons in India, although she has never been outside of the 
 town in which she lives. 
 
 An American lady told me of a remarkable interview 
 she recently had with the granddaughter of Tipu, the na- 
 tive chief who, in the latter part of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, gave the English the hardest struggle they ever had 
 in India. He was finally overcome and slain, and his ter- 
 ritory is now under English rule, but his family were al- 
 lowed a generous pension and have since lived in state 
 with high-sounding titles. His granddaughter lives in a 
 splendid palace in southern India, which she inherited 
 from her father, and is now 86 years old. She cannot 
 read or write, but is a women of extraordinary intelli- 
 gence and wide knowledge of affairs, yet she has never 
 been outside of the walls that surround her residence ; she 
 has never crossed the threshold of the palace or entered 
 the garden that surrounds it since she was a child, and 
 90 per cent of her time, day and night, has been spent in 
 the room in which she was born. Yet this woman, with 
 a title and great wealth, is perfectly contented with her 
 situation. She considers it entirely appropriate, and 
 thinks that all the women in the world ought to live in the 
 same way. 
 
 The influence she and other women of old-fashioned 
 ideas and the conservative classes have is the chief ob- 
 stacle to progress, for they are much more conservative 
 than the men, and much more bigoted in their ideas. She 
 does not believe that respectable women ought to go to 
 school ; she does not consider it necessary for them to 
 read or write, and thinks that all women should devote 
 themselves to the affairs of their households and bear 
 children, duties which do not require any education. The 
 
392 MODERN INDIA 
 
 missionaries wlio work in the zenanas, or harems, of 
 India tell me that the prejudice and resistance they are 
 compelled to overcome is much stronger and more intol- 
 erant among women than among men, for the former 
 have never had an opportunity to see the outside of their 
 homes ; have never come in contact with foreigners and 
 modern ideas, and arc perfectly satisfied with their condi- 
 tion. They testify that Hindu wives as a rule are mere 
 household drudges, and, with very rare exceptions, are 
 patterns of chastity, industry and conjugal fidelity, and 
 they are the very best of mothers. 
 
 Here and there a husband or a father is found who is 
 conscious of the disadvantages under which the women 
 of his family are laboring and would be glad to take upon 
 himself the duty of instructing his wife and daughters, 
 yet is prevented from doing so because the latter prefer to 
 follow the example of their foremothers and remain 
 ignorant. 
 
 While such conditions prevail it is impossible for the 
 government to take any steps for the promotion of educa- 
 tion among women, but a notable reform has been con- 
 ducted by English women of India under the leadership 
 of the Marchioness of Duflferin, Lady Curzon, and the 
 wives of other viceroys, by supplying women doctors and 
 hospitals, because, as you understand, men physicians are 
 not permitted to enter zenanas except upon very rare oc- 
 casions and then only in the most liberal of families. Nor 
 are women allowed to be taken to hospitals. There are 
 excellent hospitals and dispensaries in every part of 
 India, but women are not permitted to participate in their 
 benefits, and an untold amount of unnecessary suffering 
 is the result. Some years ago, inspired by Lady Duflferin, 
 an association was formed to provide women doctors, 
 
; CASTE AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 393 
 
 hospital nurses, and establish, under the direction of 
 women exclusively, hospitals for the treatment of women 
 and girls. This association is non-sectarian and no re- 
 ligious services or conversations are allowed. The move- 
 ment has received active encouragement from both the 
 imperial government and the local authorities, and by the 
 latest returns is responsible for 235 hospitals and dis- 
 pensaries, 33 women doctors with degrees from the high- 
 est institutions of Europe, 'j}^ assistants, and 354 native 
 students and trained nurses, who, during the year 1903, 
 took care of nearly a million and a half of women and 
 girls who needed treatment and relief. This does not in- 
 clude many similar institutions that are maintained by 
 the various missionary boards for the same purpose. 
 Taking both the civil and religious institutions together, 
 the women of India are now well supplied with hospitals 
 and asylums. 
 
 Scattered over the country under the care of zealous 
 and devoted Christian women are a large number of 
 homes for widows, and no one who has not lived in India 
 can appreciate the importance of such institutions and the 
 blessing they offer, for the situation of widows is pitiable. 
 Formerly they were burned upon the funeral pyres of 
 their husbands. It was an ancient custom, adopted from 
 the Scythian tribes, who sacrificed not only the wives, but 
 the concubines and slaves and horses upon the tombs of 
 their dead lords. 
 
 The British government forbade "suttee," as widow 
 burning was called, and although we hear that it is still 
 practiced occasionally in remote parts of the empire, such 
 an act would be punished as murder if the police were to 
 learn of it. But the fate of some thousands of widows 
 is worse than death, because among the superstitious 
 
394 
 
 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Hindus they arc held responsible for the death of their 
 husbands, and the sin must be expiated by a life of suf- 
 fering and penance. As long as a widow lives she must 
 serve as a slave to the remainder of the family, she must 
 wear mourning, be tabooed from society, be deprived of 
 all pleasures and comforts, and practice never-ending 
 austerities, so that after death she may escape trans- 
 migration into the body of a reptile, an insect or a toad. 
 She cannot marry again, but is compelled to remain in 
 the house of her husband's family, who make her lot as 
 unhappy and miserable as possible. 
 
 The Brahmins prohibit the remarriage of widows, but 
 in 1856 Lord Canning legalized it, and that was one of 
 the causes of the mutiny. The priests and conspirators 
 told the native soldiers that it was only a step toward the 
 abolition of all their rites and customs. The law, how- 
 ever, is a dead letter, and while there have been several 
 notable marriages of widows, the husband and wife and 
 the entire family have usually been boycotted by their 
 relatives, neighbors and friends ; husbands have been 
 ruined in business and subjected to every humiliation im- 
 aginable. 
 
 If you will examine the census statistics you will be 
 astonished at the enormous number of widows in India. 
 Out of a total of 144,000,000 women in 1901, 25,891,936 
 were widows, of whom 19,738,468 were Hindus. This is 
 accounted for by child marriage, for it is customary for 
 children five years of age and upwards to become hus- 
 bands and wives. At least 50 per cent of the adherents 
 of Brahminism are married before they are ten years old 
 and 90 per cent before they are fifteen. This also is an 
 ancient custom and is due to several reasons. Fathers 
 and mothers desire to have their children settled in life, 
 
CASTE AND THE WOMEN OF INDIA 395 
 
 as we say, as early as possible, and among the families 
 of friends they are paired off almost as soon as they are 
 born. The early marriage, however, is not much more 
 than a betrothal, for after it takes place, usually with 
 great ceremony, the children are sent back to their homes 
 and remain under the care of their parents until they 
 reach a proper age, when the wife is conducted with 
 great rejoicing to the home of her husband, and what is 
 equivalent to another marriage takes place. This occurs 
 among the highly educated and progressive Hindus. 
 They defend the custom as wise and beneficial on the 
 theory that it is an advantage for husband and wife to be 
 brought up together and have their characters molded by 
 the same influences and surroundings. In that way, they 
 argue, much unhappiness and trouble is prevented. But 
 in India, as everywhere else, the mortality is greatest 
 among children, and more than 70 per cent of the deaths 
 reported are of persons under ten years of age. Those 
 who are married are no more exempt than those who are 
 not, which explains the number of widows reported, and 
 no matter how young a girl may be when her husband 
 dies she can never have a second. 
 
 Widowers are allowed to marry again and most of 
 them do. There are only 8,110,084 widowers in all India 
 as against nearly 26,000,000 widows. 
 
 Of course there are many native homes in which wid- 
 ows are treated kindly and receive the same attention and 
 are allowed the same pleasures as the other women of the 
 family, but those who understand India assert that they 
 are exceptional, and hence asylums for those who are 
 treated badly are very much needed. This is a matter 
 with which the government cannot deal and the work is 
 
396 MODERN INDIA 
 
 left entirely to the Christian missionaries, who establish 
 homes and teach friendless widows to become self-sup- 
 porting. 
 
XXV 
 
 EDUCATION IN INDIA 
 
 Allahabad is the center of learning, the Athens in India, 
 the seat of a native university, the residence of many 
 prominent men, the headquarters of Protestant mission- 
 ary work, the residence of the governor of the United 
 Provinces, Sir James La Touche, one of the ablest and 
 most progressive of the British officials in India. Alla- 
 habad was once a city of great importance. In the time 
 of the Moguls it was the most strongly fortified place in 
 India, but the ancient citadel has been torn down by the 
 British and the palaces and temples it contained have been 
 converted into barracks, arsenals and storehouses. No- 
 where in India have so many beautiful structures been de- 
 stroyed by official authority, and great regret is fre- 
 quently expressed. Allahabad was also a religious center 
 in ancient times and the headquarters of the Buddhist 
 faith. The most interesting monument in the city is the 
 Lat of Osoka, one of a series of stone columns erected by 
 King Asoka throughout his domains about the year B. 
 C. 260, which were inscribed with texts expressing the 
 doctrines of Buddhism as taught by him. He did for 
 that faith what the Emperor Constantine the Great did 
 for Christianity ; made it the religion of the state, ap- 
 pointed a council of priests to formulate a creed and pre- 
 pare a ritual, and by his orders that creed was carved on 
 rocks, in caves and on pillars of stone and gateways of 
 
 397 
 
398 MODERN INDIA 
 
 cities for the education of the people. The texts or max- 
 ims embodied in the creed represent the purest form of 
 Buddhism, and if they could be faithfully practiced by the 
 human family this world would be a much better and 
 happier place than it is. 
 
 Several handsome modern buildings are occupied by 
 the government, the courts and the municipal officials, 
 and the university is the chief educational institution of 
 northern India. There are five universities in the empire 
 — at Bombay, Calcutta, Lahore, Allahabad and Madras 
 — and they are managed and conducted on a plan very 
 different from ours, having no fixed terms or lectures, 
 but having regular examinations open to all comers who 
 seek degrees. The standard is not quite so high as that 
 of our colleges and the curriculum is not so advanced. 
 The students may come at 15 or 16 years of age and be 
 examined in English, Latin, Greek history, geography, 
 mathematics and the elements of science, the course being 
 just a grade higher than that of our high schools, and get 
 a degree or certificate showing their proficiency. They 
 are very largely attended by natives who seek diplomas 
 required for the professions and government employ- 
 ment. After two years' study in any regular course a 
 student may present himself for an examination for a de- 
 gree and is then eligible for a diploma in law, medicine, 
 engineering and other sciences. 
 
 The slipshod systems pursued at these institutions have 
 been severely criticised by scientific educators, but they 
 seem to answer the purpose for which they are intended. 
 It is often asserted that the colleges and universities in 
 India do not cultivate a genuine desire for learning ; that 
 the education they furnish is entirely superficial, and that 
 it is obtained not for its own sake, but because it is a 
 
EDUCATION IN INDIA 399 
 
 necessary qualification for a government appointment or 
 a professional career. It is asserted that no graduate of 
 any of these institutions has ever distinguished himself 
 for scholarship or in science, that no native of India edu- 
 cated in them has ever produced any original work of 
 merit, and that no problem of political or material im- 
 portance has ever been solved by a citizen of this empire. 
 In 1902 Lord Curzon, who has taken a deep interest in 
 this subject and is an enthusiastic advocate of public 
 schools, appointed a commission to investigate the con- 
 duct and efficiency of the universities of India. The re- 
 port was not enthusiastic or encouraging. It was en- 
 tirely noncommittal. At the same time it must be said 
 that the universities and colleges of India are a great deal 
 better than nothing at all, and as there is no other pro- 
 vision for higher education they serve a very important 
 purpose. 
 
 The deplorable illiteracy of the people of India is dis- 
 closed by the recent census. Ninety-five per cent of the 
 men and more than 99 per cent of the women have never 
 learned the first letter of the alphabet, and would not rec- 
 ognize their own name if written or printed. I have been 
 told by ladies engaged in missionary and educational 
 work that grown people of the lower classes cannot even 
 distinguish one picture from another; that their mental 
 perceptions are entirely blank, and that signs and other 
 objects which usually excite the attention of children have 
 no meaning whatever for them. The total number of il- 
 literates recorded is 246,546,176, leaving 47,814,180 of 
 both sexes unaccounted for, but of these only 12,097,530 
 are returned as able to read and write. The latest statis- 
 tics show that 3,195,220 of both sexes are under instruc- 
 tion. 
 
400 MODERN INDIA 
 
 And even the percentages I have mentioned do not ade- 
 quately represent the ignorance of the masses of the peo- 
 ple, because more than half of those returned by the cen- 
 sus enumerators as literates cannot read understandingly 
 a connected sentence in a book or newspaper and can 
 only write their own names. The other half are largely 
 composed of foreigners or belong to the Brahmin castes. 
 The latter are largely responsible for present conditions, 
 because their long-continued enjoyment of a hereditary 
 supremacy over the rest of the population has been due 
 to their learning and to the ignorance of the masses be- 
 longing to other castes. They realize that they could 
 never control any but an illiterate population. Hence 
 the priests, who should be leaders in education, are, gen- 
 erally speaking, the most formidable opponents of every 
 form of school. 
 
 The census shows that only 386,000 natives in the 
 whole of India possess a knowledge of English, and this 
 number includes all the girls, boys and young men under 
 instruction. 
 
 The Parsees and Jains are more eager for learning than 
 the Hindus, and are taking an active part in educational 
 affairs. The Mohammedans are also realizing the im- 
 portance of modern schools, and there is now quite an 
 energetic movement among that sect. There is a school 
 connected with almost every Jain temple. We visited one 
 at Delhi. There were no benches or desks. The children, 
 who were of all ages, from 4 years old upward, were 
 squatting upon the floor around their masters, and were 
 learning the ordinary branches taught in common schools, 
 with the exception of one class over in a far corner of the 
 room, which was engaged in the study of Sanskrit. It 
 was explained to us that they were being trained for 
 
EDUCATION IN INDIA 401 
 
 priests. Everybody was bare-footed and bare-legged, 
 teachers and all, and every boy was studying out loud, 
 repeating his lesson over and over as he committed it to 
 memory. Some of the youngsters made their presence 
 known by reading in very loud voices. A few of them 
 had ordinary slates. Others used blocks of wood for the 
 same purpose, but the most of them wrote their exercises 
 upon pieces of tin taken from cans sent over by the 
 Standard Oil Company. We went into a school one day 
 where, for lack of slates and stationery, the children were 
 copying their writing lessons in the sand on the floor. It 
 was a new idea, but it answered the purpose. With little 
 brushes they smoothed off a surface and formed letters as 
 clearly as they could have been made upon a blackboard. 
 
 Bright colors are characteristic of the Hindus. Their 
 garments are of the gayest tints ; both the outer and inner 
 walls of their houses are covered with rude drawings in 
 colors ; their carts are painted in fantastic designs ; and 
 their trunks are ornamented in a similar way. They are 
 not always done in the highest form of art, but you may 
 be sure that the colors are bright and permanent. Some 
 people paint the hides of their horses and bullocks, es- 
 pecially on hoHdays, and their taste for art, both in design 
 and execution, is much more highly developed than their 
 knowledge of letters. 
 
 The present Indian educational system is about fifty 
 years old, but popular education, as we use that term, was 
 not introduced in a practical way until during the '8o's. 
 Up to that time nearly all the schools were conducted by 
 missionaries and as private institutions. In 1858, when 
 the government was transferred from the East India 
 Company to the crown, there were only 2,000 public 
 schools in all India, with less than 200,000 pupils, and 
 
402 MODERN INDIA 
 
 even now with a population of 300,000,000 there are only 
 148,541 institutions of learning of all kinds, including 
 kindergartens and universities, with a grand total of 
 4,530,412 pupils. Of these 43,160 are private institutions, 
 with 638,999 pupils. 
 
 Education is not compulsory in India. The natives are 
 not compelled to send their children to school and the 
 officials tell me that if it were attempted there would be 
 great trouble, chiefly because of the Brahmin priests, 
 who, as I have already intimated, are decidedly opposed 
 to the education of the masses. Normal schools have 
 been established in every province for the training of 
 teachers, with 31,114 young men and 2,833 yowng women 
 as students. There has been a slight increase in the at- 
 tendance at school during the last few years. In 1892 
 only I I.I per cent of the children of school age were en- 
 rolled and the average attendance was a little over 7 per 
 cent. In 1902 the enrollment had increased to 12.5 per 
 cent of the school population, and the attendance to a 
 little more than 8 per cent. Of the pupils in the public 
 schools 509,525 were Brahmins and 2,269,930 non-Brah- 
 mins. In the private institutions 43,032 were Brahmins 
 and the balance non-Brahmins. 
 
 There are several important art schools in India which 
 have been established and are encouraged by the govern- 
 ment for the purpose of encouraging the natives to pur- 
 sue the industrial arts. Lord Curzon has taken a decided 
 interest in this subject, and is doing everything in his 
 power to revive the ancient art industries, such as brocade 
 weaving, embroidery, carving, brass working, mosaic, 
 lacquering, and others of a decorative character. The 
 tendency of late years has been to increase the volume of 
 the product at the sacrifice of the quality, and the foreign 
 
EDUCATION IN INDIA 403 
 
 demand for Indian goods and the indifference of the buy- 
 ing public as to their excellence is said to have been very 
 demoralizing upon the artisans. 
 
 From an artistic point of view, the manufactures of 
 metal are the most important products of India ; the wood 
 carvers of ancient times surpassed all rivals and still have 
 a well-deserved reputation. In every village may be 
 found artists of great merit both in brass, copper, wood, 
 silk and other industrial arts, but the quality of their work 
 is continually deteriorating, and Lord Curzon and other 
 sincere friends of India are endeavoring to restore it to 
 the former high standard. For that purpose art schools 
 have been established in Calcutta, Lahore, Bombay, 
 Madras and other places, first to train the eyes and the 
 hands of the young artisans, and, second, to elevate their 
 taste and stimulate their ambition to excel in whatever 
 line of work they undertake. There are several thousand 
 young men in these schools who have shown remarkable 
 talent and are beginning to make their influence felt 
 throughout the country. 
 
 As you may imagine, it is very difficult to induce people 
 to produce objects of high art when those which cost less 
 labor and money can be sold for the same prices. As 
 long as the foreign demand for Indian goods continues 
 this tendency to cheapen the product will be noticed. 
 
 By the late census it appears that there were 2,590 pub- 
 lications in the native Indian languages during the year 
 1900, as against 2,178 during the previous year; 1,895 
 were books and 695 pamphlets ; 1,616 of the books were 
 original works and the remainder were translations ; 832 
 were in the Bengali language and the remainder were 
 divided among eighty-eight other languages, ninety-nine 
 being in Sanskrit and 103 in Persian, Included in this list 
 
404 MODERN INDIA 
 
 were poetry, fiction, works of travel, religious books, his- 
 tory, biography, philosophy and several on political econ- 
 omy. Among the Persian publications I noticed "A His- 
 tory of Russian Rule in Asia" ; among the translations are 
 Lord Lytton's "Last Days of Pompeii," several popular 
 novels, and several of Shapespeare's plays. There was 
 a history of England and a series of biographies entitled 
 "Lives of Great Women," including tliose of Queen Vic- 
 toria, Queen Elizabeth, Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette, 
 and the mother of Napoleon I. 
 
 Since 1902 there have been several movements among 
 the Hindus and Mohammedan citizens of India looking 
 to the advancement of their races and coreligionists. At 
 Bombay, in December, 1903, was held a Alohammedan 
 educational conference, and a committee was appointed 
 to draw up a plan of permanent organization for the pur- 
 pose of awakening among the members of that sect an 
 interest in the advancement of women and the education 
 of the masses. Representatives were present from nearly 
 all of the provinces in which there is a Mohammedan pop- 
 ulation, and resolutions were passed declaring that, in 
 the opinion of the conference, schools should be estab- 
 lished throughout India to educate young women and 
 children of both sexes in strict conformity with the cus- 
 toms and doctrines of Islam. It was asserted that such 
 educational facilities are absolutely necessary to keep the 
 children out of the public and Christian schools. The 
 most notable feature of the conference, which marks an 
 entirely new departure in the history of Islam, was the 
 presence, unveiled and in modern dress, of Miss Sorabjee, 
 a highly educated and accomplished member of that sect, 
 who appeared daily upon the platform, participated in the 
 debates and made a lengthy address upon the emancipa- 
 
EDUCATION IN INDIA 405 
 
 tion of women. She declared that in a population of 60,- 
 000,000 Mohammedans only 4,000 girls are now attend- 
 ing school, which, she said, is a menace to civilization, a 
 detriment to Islam and a disgrace to the members of that 
 church. I was informed that this is the first time a 
 Mohammedan woman ever made an address before a 
 public assembly of Mohammedans, because the Koran 
 does not permit women to appear in public and custom 
 requires them to conceal their faces. Miss Sorabjee was, 
 nevertheless, received with respect, and made a decidedly 
 favorable impression upon the assembly, which was com- 
 posed of men of culture and influence and true believers 
 in the teachings of the Prophet. 
 
 Another notable feature of the conference was the 
 unanimous recognition of the growing influence of Chris- 
 tianity in the Indian Empire, and the opinion that in order 
 to preserve their faith the followers of Islam must imitate 
 its example. Progressive Mohammedans have become 
 convinced that not only their men but their women will 
 insist upon having an education, and will seek it in the 
 Christian schools if facilities are not furnished by mem- 
 bers of their own religion. Aga Khan, a Mohammedan 
 prince who presided over the gathering, explained that 
 the conference was called in obedience to the spirit of 
 progress, and as an indication that the Mohammedan sec- 
 tion of the community was alive to the disadvantages 
 under which the members of the faith were laboring, and 
 to the need of educated men as leaders in society and 
 commerce. 
 
 Mr. Tyabji, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of 
 the Bombay presidency, took even more advanced ground 
 and declared that the schools proposed by the conference 
 must be far in advance of those heretofore provided by 
 
4o6 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Mohammedans, and teach English, French, German and 
 the modern sciences as well as the maxims of the Koran. 
 By that remark he uncovered the great defect of Moham- 
 medan education, which is purely religious, with the. ex- 
 ception of a single institution in northern India to which 
 I refer in a previous chapter. The conservative element 
 of the Moslem population holds that a knowledge of 
 reading, writing and arithmetic is sufficient for members 
 of that sect ; hence in most of their schools they teach 
 nothing except the Koran, which is the book of books, 
 the law of laws, and contains knowledge sufficient for all 
 mankind under all circumstances. Some progressive Mo- 
 hammedans go a little too far in the other direction and 
 would ignore all Arabic literature and leave all eccle- 
 siastical affairs to the priests. The Arabic and Persian 
 languages are rich in learning, poetry and general liter- 
 ature. But they are not cultivated, and are almost un- 
 known to the Moslem priests, who are the school teachers 
 of that faith to-day. They have left the revival of Arabic 
 belles-lettres entirely to foreigners, and confine them- 
 selves to the Koran and the commentaries that have been 
 prepared upon it. It is asserted that one can learn more 
 of Arabian and Persian literature to-day in London, Ox- 
 ford, Paris, Berlin or Zurich than is known in Constanti- 
 nople or Cairo or any other Mohammedan city, and that 
 Professor Max Muller of Oxford has done more to en- 
 courage its study than all the Mohammedan priests and 
 professors in existence. 
 
 At almost the same time, although in another place, 
 several of the leading thinkers and scholars of the Brah- 
 min caste were discussing the same subject with the same 
 purpose and from the same point of view. They have 
 been endeavoring to inaugurate what they are pleased to 
 
EDUCATION IN INDIA 407 
 
 call "the Renaissance of the Hindus." And there is also 
 an active movement for a revival of Buddhism, although 
 thus far it is confined to Japan and Ceylon. Buddhism is 
 practically extinct in India. At the Hindu conference 
 several thoughtful people expressed the view that some- 
 thing must be done to revive the vitality of that religion, 
 because it is the faith of nearly 200,000,000 souls in India 
 alone, over whom it is gradually losing its influence, be- 
 cause of the vigorous propaganda of the Christians. It 
 was not admitted that the Hindus are adopting the Chris- 
 tian religion, but merely that they are losing confidence in 
 their own and drifting toward materialism. 
 
 It is universally recognized among educated Brahmins 
 that India is approaching a great religious crisis which 
 demands the attention of all who are interested in the 
 welfare of the people. The movement is slow, but quite 
 obvious to all who are watching the development of re- 
 forms that have been proposed for the last fifteen or 
 twenty years. It is based upon the fact that Brahminism, 
 as taught at the temples of India to-day, does not satisfy 
 or even appeal to educated men. At the same time it is 
 insisted that true Hinduism has the same ideals and the 
 same spiritual advantages that are offered by Christianity. 
 
 Experienced missionaries tell me there is a distinct 
 tendency among educated Hindus to give up the old line 
 of defense against the Christian religion, and, admitting 
 the ethical purity and truth of the teachings of Christ, to 
 attack some particular doctrine, some dogma over which 
 Christians themselves have been in controversy, to elab- 
 orate the criticisms of Ingersoll and Bradlaugh, and to 
 call attention to the failure of the Christians to realize 
 their own ideals. This is very significant, but at the 
 same time there is little encouragement or satisfaction in 
 
4o8 MODERN INDIA 
 
 studying and tracing the various reforms that have been 
 started from time to time among the Hindus. They have 
 been many and frequent. New teachers are constantly 
 arising, new organizations are being formed, and revivals 
 of ancient precepts are occurring every year, but they do 
 not endure. They are confined to limited circles, and 
 none has yet penetrated to any extent into the dense mass 
 of superstition, idolatry and ignorance which lays its 
 offerings at the altars of cruel and obscene gods. 
 
 At one of Lady Curzon's receptions, among other not- 
 able men and women, I met Sir Nepundra Narayan 
 Bhuf Bahadur, Maharaja of Cutch-Behar, and his wife, 
 one of the few native w^omen who dress in modern attire 
 and appear in public like their European sisters. She is 
 the daughter of one of the most famous of Indian re- 
 formers. 
 
 Early in the last century a scholar and patriot named 
 Ramohun Roy, becoming dissatisfied with the teachings 
 and habits of the Brahmins, renounced his ancestral re- 
 ligion and organized what was called "The Truth Seek- 
 ing Society" for the purpose of reviving pure Hinduism. 
 He proclaimed a thcistic creed, taught the existence of 
 one God, and the sin of idolatry. He declared for the 
 emancipation of women, for charity to the poor and help- 
 less, for the purity of life, and, altogether, his sermons 
 and lectures are very similar to the teachings of the 
 Unitarians in the United States. He was called the 
 Theodore Parker of India, and attracted many followers. 
 But before he had accomplished much he died, and his 
 mantle fell upon Keshab Chunder Sen, a man of great 
 learning, talent and worth, the son of one of the most 
 conservative families of the Brahmin caste, born and 
 brought up in a fetid atmosphere of superstition and 
 
EDUCATION IN INDIA 409 
 
 idolatry. While attending school at Calcutta he was 
 thrown in with European teachers and associates and, 
 being of an inquisitive mind, undertook the study of re- 
 ligions other than his own. It naturally came about that 
 he heard of the "Truth Seeking Society" and ultimately 
 joined it, and by his force of character and ability became 
 one of its leaders. Early in his career he concluded that 
 the greatest weakness among the people of India is their 
 treatment of their women, and he organized what was 
 known as "The Indian Reform Association" for the pur- 
 pose of promoting the education of women, preventing 
 child marriage, relieving widows from their forlorn os- 
 tracism and securing for the daughters of Indian families 
 the same legal and property rights that are enjoyed by the 
 sons. The movement became quite popular and he 
 gained considerable reputation. He went to England and 
 Germany and delivered lectures and published several 
 books. His agitation accomplished some practical results, 
 and he secured the passage of several laws of importance 
 establishing the civil rights of wives, widows and 
 daughters. 
 
 In 1884 his daughter, a very brilliant and beautiful 
 woman, married the Maharaja of Cutch-Behar, who was 
 converted, joined the movement and became an active 
 member of the society. Like many others of the princely 
 families of India, he lays claim to divine origin, the 
 founder of his dynasty having been a god. In 1772, the 
 ruling rajah, having been attacked by more powerful 
 neighbors, applied for protection to Warren Hastings, 
 then governor of Bengal, and acknowledged subjection to 
 the East Indian Company. The province of Cutch-Behar 
 was thus one of the first to be absorbed by the British 
 Empire, but it has ever since been governed by the native 
 
410 MODERN INDIA 
 
 prince, who nominally owns all of the land in his territory 
 and receives taxes in lieu of rent from his tenants, who 
 are his subjects. His territory has a population of 
 650,000, of whom 427,000 are Hindus and 174,539 are 
 Mohammedans. He is assisted in his government by a 
 resident English adviser, appointed by the viceroy, and 
 really has very little to do. He has a personal allowance 
 of $150,000 for the support of himself and family, and 
 inherited from his ancestors one of the most rare and val- 
 uable collections of jewels in India. 
 
 The present maharaja was born in 1863, educated in 
 England, attained his majority in 1883, and has two sons, 
 one of whom is a member of the Viceroy's Corps of Im- 
 perial Cadets, and the other acts as his father's secretary. 
 The maharaja is considered one of the handsomest men 
 in India, as he is one of the most accomplished and pro- 
 gressive, and his wife is as famous for her intellectual 
 as for her physical attractions. 
 
 The late Jamsetjee Nusserwanji Tata of Bombay, a 
 typical Parsee, amassed an enormous fortune as a mer- 
 chant and manufacturer, won an enviable reputation for 
 integrity, enterprise and public spirit, and for several 
 years before his lamented death in 1904, was permitted to 
 enjoy the gratification that men of his kind deserve after 
 a long career of activity and usefulness. Having pro- 
 vided in a most ample manner for his own future wants, 
 and intrusting his enormous business responsibilities to 
 his sons, he devoted the rest of his life to travel and other 
 pleasures, and a large portion of his fortune to benevo- 
 lence. I have been frequently told that Mr. Tata in his 
 time was the most enterprising man in India. He spent 
 enormous sums in experiments for the development of 
 the resources and industries of his country; some of 
 
EDUCATION IN INDIA 411 
 
 which failed, but others have been eminently successful. 
 He developed the cotton industry, perhaps more than any 
 other man, and improved the staple by importing plants 
 and seeds from Egypt. He was largely engaged in grow- 
 ing, preserving and exporting the fruits of India in order 
 to furnish another occupation for the country people, and 
 in a thorough exploration of its iron deposits, building 
 furnaces, smelters, and mills with the hope of being able 
 to supply the local markets with home made steel and 
 iron. There is plenty of ore, plenty of coal and labor, and 
 Mr. Tata was willing to pay the expense and do the work 
 of a pioneer in order that his fellow countrymen may 
 enjoy the wealth that lies dormant in their mountains. 
 
 He had cotton mills and other manufactories in various 
 parts of India, but the greater part of his fortune was in- 
 vested in the industries and real estate of his own 
 province of Bombay. His residence was one of the 
 largest and most beautiful palaces in that city, filled with 
 works of art and trophies of travel. He was the owner of 
 several of the finest business blocks, introduced modern 
 apartment houses into Bombay, and built the modern 
 hotel to which I have several times alluded. He sup- 
 ported several young Parsees in the technical schools and 
 colleges of England, Germany and the United States. 
 For years no less than six such students were selected an- 
 nually to be educated at his expense, not only because he 
 took a personal interest in the welfare of his co-religion- 
 ists, but because he believed that young engineers, chem- 
 ists, electricians and other practical scientists were needed 
 to develop the resources of India. 
 
 Mr. Tata's latest act of benevolence, shortly before his 
 death, was to place in the hands of a board of trustees, of 
 whom the chancellor of the University of Bombay is 
 
412 MODERN INDIA 
 
 chairman, real estate and securities valued at more than 
 3,500,000 of rupees, which is equivalent to about $1,- 
 250,000, the income from which, amounting to 120,000 
 rupees, or about $40,000 in our money, a year, is to be 
 used for the establishment and perpetual maintenance of 
 the Indian Research University, a name selected by a con- 
 ference called together by the viceroy. This conference 
 was composed of four directors of public instruction for 
 the different provinces of India, the home secretary of 
 the imperial government, the surgeon general of the army 
 and several other gentlemen eminent in educational and 
 public affairs. After a careful examination of all condi- 
 tions they decided to locate the institution at the city of 
 Bangalore, in the province of Mysore, in southern India, 
 where the local government, as an inducement, donated 
 300 acres of land upon an eminence in a very favorable 
 situation, and offered a contribution of 18,000 rupees a 
 year toward the payment of the expenses, provided the 
 money is used in such a way as to benefit the people of 
 that province. It has also offered to defray a consider- 
 able part of the cost of erecting the necessary buildings. 
 
XXVI 
 
 THE HIMALAYAS AND THE INVASION OF THIBET 
 
 Darjeeling is one of the most favored spots on earth, 
 the loveliest place in India, and the favorite resort and 
 sanitarium of the citizen element as distinguished from 
 military and official circles. It is a hard journey, both go- 
 ing and coming, and a traveler gets impatient when he 
 finds that it takes him from four o'clock in the afternoon 
 of one day until nearly two o'clock of the next to make a 
 journey of 246 miles. He leaves Calcutta with the thin- 
 nest clothing he can buy, but when he arrives there he is 
 glad that he brought his overcoat and gloves, and pulls a 
 second blanket over himself at night. At the same time 
 it is not so cold in Darjeeling as one would expect from 
 the altitude of 7,400 feet above the sea, and the latitude, 
 which is about 27 degrees 50 minutes. You travel from 
 four o'clock till seven upon a railway of ordinary gauge, 
 cross the Ganges on a steamboat for an hour, taking your 
 dinner while afloat ; change into a three- foot gauge train 
 until half-past four in the morning, when you are routed 
 out, given a cup of coflfee and a roll, and transferred to a 
 baby carriage on wheels which crawls up the foothills of 
 the Himalayas at the rate of six miles an hour. 
 
 The track is only two feet gauge, with forty-pound 
 rails, which have been laid upon the ancient highway over 
 which the caravans between China and India have passed 
 for thirty centuries. It winds in and out of gorges and 
 
 413 
 
414 MODERN INDIA 
 
 defiles and at several points the engineers have had to cut 
 a foothold for it on the edges of tremendous precipices. 
 It doubles on itself repeatedly, describes the letter S and 
 the letter Z and the figure 8, and zigzags about so reck- 
 lessly that the engineer puts his locomotive first at one 
 end of the train and then at the other. Englishmen who 
 write books on India assert that it is the grandest railway 
 journey in the world, but we can show, them several quite 
 as picturesque and attractive in our own beloved Rocky 
 Mountains, The only advantage they have over us there 
 is the superior height of the mountains and the superior 
 size of the trees. But you must remember that our coun- 
 try is young yet, and India is one of the oldest nations in 
 the world. 
 
 The first few miles of track lie in a dense jungle, with 
 vegetation of truly tropical luxuriance. Cane stalks grow 
 fifty and sixty feet high, the grass is fifteen feet deep, 
 beautiful bamboo trees, whose foliage is as fine as feath- 
 ers, and palms which have plumage like a peacock and a 
 bird of paradise, lift their proud and haughty heads above 
 an impenetrable growth which, the guides tell us, is the 
 home of tigers, rhinoceroses, panthers, bears, wild hogs, 
 buffaloes, deer and all sorts of beasts, and snakes as big 
 around as a barrel. Fern trees are lovely, and are found 
 here in their greatest glory, but nevertheless we have fo- 
 liage at home, and they are no more beautiful than our 
 elms, oaks, and other trees that I might mention. 
 
 This is a great tea country, and the mountain sides 
 have been cleared in many places for plantations. A tea 
 planter in India is a heavy swell. He may be no more 
 brilliant or intellectual or virtuous or handsome, but the 
 fact that he grows tea instead of potatoes or wheat or 
 sugar gives him a higher standing in the social scale. I 
 
THE INVASION OF THIBET 415 
 
 was asking an explanation of this phenomenon from a 
 very wise man the other day, and, although he insisted 
 that his attention had never been called to it before, he 
 was willing to admit that it was so, and he explained it on 
 the theory that so many sons of dukes and earls and lords 
 and the swagger set in England had come to India to en- 
 gage in tea growing that they had created a caste of their 
 own ; so that whenever a man said he was a tea planter the 
 public immediately assumed that his father belonged to 
 the nobility and treated him accordingly. The tea plant- 
 ers usually live in good style. They have beautiful bun- 
 galows, gardens, lawns and groves, and although they 
 complain of the depression of the industry, there is no 
 evidence that they suffer for want of the necessities of 
 life. In the Darjeeling district are about two hundred 
 large plantations, employing from one to two thousand 
 laborers each, and producing about 12,000,000 pounds a 
 year. Most of the product is shipped to England, 
 
 They carry you up the mountains in tiny little cars seat- 
 ing six persons and open all around so that the passengers 
 can take in all there is to see, and they have plenty of 
 scenery. The trains are not allowed to run faster than 
 six miles an hour as a precaution against accidents, which 
 allows plenty of time to look about, and they twist around 
 so that you can see things from various points of view. 
 And if a passenger gets impatient or is in a hurry he can 
 jump out of the car and walk ahead. 
 
 There is little doubt that the views from Darjeeling in- 
 clude the most majestic assemblage of mountains on the 
 earth's surface. For a distance of 200 miles east and 
 west there arise a succession of peaks not less than 22,000 
 feet high, and several of them more than 25,000. In the 
 immediate vicinity and within sight are the highest 
 
4i6 MODERN INDIA 
 
 mountains in the world. Everest, the king of mountains, 
 which measures 29,200 feet, is only eighty miles distant ; 
 Kinchin junga, which is forty-five miles distant, is 28,156 
 feet high, and also, in the immediate vicinity, are the iol- 
 lowing : 
 
 Janu 25,304 Kabru 24,015 
 
 Chumalari 23,943 Pauhanri .23,186 
 
 Donkia 23,176 Baudim 22,017 
 
 Narsingh 22,146 Kanhenjhan 22,500 
 
 Chomaino 23,300 
 
 Between these mountain peaks is an almost continuous 
 succession of snow fields and glaciers beyond all compar- 
 ison. The snow line is 17,000 feet in midsummer, and in 
 winter comes down to 12,000 and 15,000 feet, and when 
 that altitude is reached snow is continuous and impass- 
 able. This is the highest and the most extensive of all 
 mountain ranges. Along the northern frontier of India 
 for 2,000 miles it stands like a vast hedge, the most for- 
 midable natural boundary in the world, nowhere lower 
 than 17,000 feet, and impassable for armies the entire 
 distance, with the exception of two gateways : Jeylup Pass 
 here and at the Khyber Pass of which I told you in a 
 previous chapter. There are passes over the snow, but 
 their elevation is seldom less than 16,000 feet ; the aver- 
 age elevation of the watershed exceeds 18,000 feet, and 
 the great plateau of Thibet, which lies upon the other 
 side, is between 15,000 and 16,000 feet above the sea. 
 
 This plateau, which is sometimes called the "Roof of 
 the World," is 700 miles long and 500 miles wide, and 
 could not be crossed by an army not only because of the 
 winds and the cold, but also because there is very little 
 water, no fuel and no supplies. No invading force could 
 
THE INVASION OF THIBET 417 
 
 possibly enter India from the north if these passes were 
 defended, because the inhospitable climate of Thibet would 
 not sustain an army, and the enormous distance and alti- 
 tude would make the transportation of supplies for any 
 considerable force practically impossible. During the 
 summer the plateau is covered with flocks and herds, but 
 when the cold weather comes on the shepherds drive 
 them into the foothills, where they find shelter. The 
 width of the main range of the Himalayas will average 
 about 500 miles between its northern and southern foot- 
 hills ; it embraces every possible kind of climate, vegeta- 
 tion and natural products, and is a vast reservoir from 
 which four of the greatest rivers of the world flow across 
 the plains of India, carrying the drainage from the melt- 
 ing snows, and without this reservoir northern India 
 would be a hopeless and dreary desert. 
 
 There is a lively dispute among geographers, topogra- 
 phers and other learned pundits of the scientific bureaus 
 of the Indian government as to whether Everest is really 
 the king of the mountains. Other peaks in the group 
 have their advocates, and over in Cashmere are several 
 which lift their heads nearly as high as 30,000 feet, but 
 few of them have been accurately measured, and the 
 height of none can be determined with exactness. Mount 
 Godwin, in Cashmere, is very near the height of Everest, 
 and many claim that Kinchin junga is even higher. 
 
 Darjeeling is a sanitarium of the greatest benefit to 
 the people of India. The town is made up chiefly of 
 hotels, hospitals and summer bungalows belonging to the 
 mercantile class of Calcutta. Few officials except military 
 officers ever go there. The official society follows the 
 viceroy to Simla, where the summer is always gay, but 
 those who seek health and rest only and are fond of 
 
4i8 MODERN INDIA 
 
 nature .prefer Darjeeling. The hotels are good, there 
 are plenty of boarding houses, there are hospitals for all 
 sorts of infirmities, and perhaps there is no other place 
 in the world with such an ideal climate within a day's 
 travel of the tropics. The hotels, villas, boarding houses, 
 hospitals and asylums are scattered all over the hillside 
 without regularity of arrangement. Wherever a level 
 spot has been found some kind of a house has been 
 erected, usually without any architectural taste, and the 
 common use of corrugated iron for building material has 
 almost spoiled the looks of the place. There is plenty 
 of timber, and the great mountains are built of stone, 
 so that there is no excuse for the atrocious structures 
 that have been erected there. 
 
 Everybody who comes is expected to get up at half- 
 past 3 in the morning in order to see the sun rise. 
 Everything is arranged by the managers of the hotel. 
 They have fixed the sunrise at that hour in order to 
 compel their guests to make the greatest possible effort 
 to see it because they will thus remember the incident, 
 and the experience will remain longer in their memory. 
 They give you a cup of cofifee and a roll, and, if you 
 insist upon it, you can get an egg, although the cook is 
 not inclined to be obliging at that hour in the morning. 
 They put you in a sort of sedan chair called a "dandy," 
 and you are carried by four men seven miles up the 
 mountains to a point 12,000 feet above the sea. From 
 there you can look upon the most impressive spectacle that 
 human eye has ever witnessed, the rising of the sun over 
 an amphitheater surrounded by the highest group of 
 peaks on the globe. Their snow-covered summits are 
 illuminated gradually, beginning at the top, as if a search- 
 light were slowly turned upon them. Mount Everest 
 
THE INVASION OF THIBET 419 
 
 stands in the center, but is so much farther away that 
 it does not seem so much higher than the rest. 
 
 There is little mountain climbing in India compared 
 with the Alps, because the distances and the difficulties 
 are so great. A Boston gentleman and his wife made 
 the ascent of Mount Everest in 1904, and it is claimed 
 that they went higher than anyone had ever gone before. 
 
 Darjeeling is not a large town, but it is filled with in- 
 teresting people, and on Sunday a market is held in the 
 principal bazaar which is declared to be the most pictur- 
 esque and fascinating in all India. Throngs of natives 
 in quaint costumes come from all parts of the country 
 around, representatives of tribes which do not often stray 
 so far away from their homes. They come from Nepaul, 
 Thibet, Sikkim and the surrounding countries, and bring 
 articles of home manufacture to exchange for "store 
 goods," The features of the people are unmistakable 
 testimony of their Mongolian origin. They are short of 
 stature, with broad, flat faces, high cheek bones and 
 bright, smiling eyes wide apart. The men grow no 
 beards, but have long pigtails of coarse coal-black hair. 
 The women are sturdy, good-natured and unembarrassed ; 
 they are adorned with a great quantity of jewelry, chiefly 
 of silver, but often of gold. They wear circlets around 
 their heads made of coral, turquoise, amber, agate, jade 
 or other precious stones, with five or six necklaces and 
 enormous girdles of the same material. Huge ear rings, 
 four or five inches long, pull down the lobes of their ears. 
 Their wrists are heavy with bracelets, their limbs with 
 anklets, and their fingers are half hidden with rings. The 
 entire fortune of a family is usually invested in personal 
 adornments for the women members. They find this 
 much safer than savings banks. 
 
420 MODERN INDIA 
 
 The attention of the world has recently been attracted 
 in that direction because of an unusual and very signifi- 
 cant movement of the Indian government, which, in the 
 winter of 1904, took advantage of the embarrassments of 
 Russia in the farther East, and sent a military expedi- 
 tion over the northern border on the pretext of escorting 
 a diplomatic mission. Colonel Younghusband was sent 
 as an envoy extraordinary — very extraordinary — for, with 
 2,500 British soldiers, he was instructed to make a treaty 
 of commerce and good will with the Grand Lama of 
 Thibet, and his orders were to stay at Lhassa until the 
 treaty was negotiated and as much longer as was neces- 
 sary to compel the Thibetans to respect its terms and 
 carry out its stipulations. That means the permanent 
 occupation of Lhassa by a British army and the opening 
 of an unknown and mysterious region to trade. 
 
 Thibet is the unknown, mysterious country of the 
 world, a land of desert and mountains inhabited by a 
 primitive and bigoted people, who have for many years 
 been under the protection of China, and paid tribute to 
 the emperor until the late war with Japan in 1895. 
 After the result of that conflict became known they 
 seemed to lose their respect for and confidence in their 
 protectors and have sent no envoys or money to Peking 
 since. We know very little about Thibet. Foreigners 
 are not permitted to enter the country, and only a few 
 venturesome explorers have endured the hardships and 
 faced the dangers of a visit to that forbidden land. 
 Indeed, it is so perilous an undertaking that a skeptical 
 public frequently takes the liberty to doubt the state- 
 ments of the men who have gone there. But all agree 
 that it is the hermit of nations, and its people are under 
 the control of cruel and ignorant Buddhist priests, who 
 
THE INVASION OF THIBET 421 
 
 endeavor to prevent them from acquiring any modern 
 customs or ideas. One of the objects of Colonel Young- 
 husband's expedition is to change this situation and per- 
 suade the ignorant and bigoted ecclesiastics who govern 
 Thibet to open their gates and admit foreign merchants 
 and foreign merchandise into that benighted country. 
 There is considerable commerce, however. Parties of 
 Thibetan traders are continually coming across the fron- 
 tier into Darjeeling with all sorts of native products and 
 may be seen in the market that is held every Sunday 
 morning and during the weekdays in the bazaars of the 
 city. After selling their goods they buy cottons, drugs, 
 groceries, hardware and other European goods and take 
 them back into their own country ; but foreigners are not 
 allowed to pass the line, and practically all of the trade of 
 Thibet is monopolized by the Chinese, who sell the natives 
 large quantities of cotton fabrics and other imported mer- 
 chandise as well as tea, silk and other Chinese goods. 
 This trade is supposed to be worth many millions of dol- 
 lars, and the ability of India to furnish the tea and of 
 England to furnish the manufactured goods that the in- 
 habitants of Thibet may need is considered ample reason 
 for sending the Younghusband expedition into that coun- 
 try. But there are other reasons quite as important. 
 
 Lying between Thibet and India is the independent 
 state of Nepal, or Nepaul, the home of the Gurkhas, one 
 of the finest fighting races in the world, and there are 
 eighteen full regiments of them in the Indian army. The 
 Gurkhas are a mountain people, industrious, temperate, 
 hardy, brave, loyal, honest and without sense of fear. 
 They are the main dependence of the Indian government 
 among the native troops. Nepal has its own govern- 
 ment and the people are proud of their independence. 
 
422 MODERN INDIA 
 
 While they are entirely friendly to Great Britain and have 
 treaties with India under which the latter extends a pro- 
 tectorate over the province and enters into an offensive 
 and defensive alliance, the Maharaja permits no British 
 adviser to take part in his government and receives a 
 representative of the viceroy only in the capacity of envoy 
 or minister plenipotentiary. The latter dare not inter- 
 fere with the administration of the government and never 
 presumes to tender his advice to the native rulers unless 
 it is asked. His duties are chiefly to keep the viceroy 
 at Calcutta informed as to what is going on in the Nepal 
 province and to cultivate the good will of the officials and 
 the people. 
 
 There has never been a census of Nepal and the popula- 
 tion has been variously estimated from 2,000,000 to 
 5,000,000. It is probably near the latter figure. The 
 people are mostly engaged in raising cattle, sheep and 
 goats and growing wheat, barley and other grains in the 
 valleys. The principal exports, which amount to about 
 $8,000,000 a year, are wool, hides and grain, and the 
 imports, which amount to about $5,000,000, are cotton 
 goods and other wearing apparel, iron and steel, cutlery 
 and other manufactured merchandise. 
 
 The people of Nepal profess the Hindu faith and have 
 close relations with the Brahmins at Benares, which is the 
 Rome, or the Mecca, of Brahminism. They sometimes 
 in the past have been bold enough to defy British au- 
 thority, and, for example, protected Nana Sahib, the 
 leader of the mutiny of 1857, and gave him an asylum 
 when he fled from British vengeance. However ami- 
 cable the relations between Nepal and the British govern- 
 ment, the latter is scrupulously careful not to furnish any 
 excuse for complaint or controversy, because a collision 
 
THE INVASION OF THIBET 423 
 
 with this powerful people would not only result in the 
 loss of the finest corps in the Indian army, but would 
 make it extremely unpleasant for the people of Assam, 
 Bengal, Oudh and the Punjab, which provinces lie next 
 on the south. 
 
 One hundred years ago an army from Nepal invaded 
 Thibet and sacked an important town. The Thibetans 
 appealed to China, which had not yet lost its military 
 vigor, and sent an army to invade Nepal. It came within 
 eighteen miles of Gurkha, the capital, when the Nepals 
 proposed a parley, paid a heavy indemnity and entered 
 into a treaty of permanent peace, promising never to in- 
 vade Thibet again. That was the last heroic act of the 
 Chinese government, and then, in compliance with the 
 terms of the treaty, all the passes through the Himalaya 
 Mountains between the two countries were permanently 
 closed by common consent, and in many cases were walled 
 up with masonry, adding an artificial barrier to the nat- 
 ural wall. It was also agreed that there should be no 
 communication across the border and that the inhabitants 
 of both provinces would remain upon their own sides. 
 This prohibition has been enforced until to-day, and has 
 not been violated except by Buddhist priests and monks 
 and a few venturesome explorers. No Englishman may 
 even now enter Nepal or pass from Nepal into Thibet 
 without permission from the authorities of both govern- 
 ments. 
 
 Mindful of the aggressive policy of Russia, which 
 controls Turkestan, the country north of Thibet, the 
 British government some years ago sent an envoy named 
 McCauley to Lhassa, with the permission of the Chinese 
 government, to open commercial relations with Thibet and 
 find another market for the tea of Assam and the manu- 
 
424 MODERN INDIA 
 
 facturcd merchandise of India. But he was unable to 
 do anything. He could not induce the priests, or lamas, 
 who control the government, to negotiate with him. They 
 would not respond to his advances and gave him plainly 
 to understand that they did not care to improve their 
 relations with India. Immediately after his departure the 
 Thibetans began to fortify the passes over the moun- 
 tains, and invaded the little province of Sikkim, which also 
 adjoins Thibet. The British sent up troops and forbade 
 the continuance of the work. The Thibetans withdrew 
 to the interior and agreed to make a commercial treaty 
 and open their market to Indian goods, promising to 
 send a plenipotentiary to Calcutta for that purpose within 
 six months; but he has never appeared, and frequent 
 reminders from the British have passed without notice. 
 
 When Lord Curzon came to India he determined to 
 reverse the policy of indifference which had been pursued 
 by Lord Elgin, his predecessor. The opening of Thibet 
 to Indian trade has been one of the principal features of 
 his administrative programme. In 1900 he sent to 
 Lhassa an ambassador in the person of Colonel Young- 
 husband, a distinguished Asiatic traveler, who speaks 
 the language of Thibet, to talk things over and persuade 
 the Dailai Lama, as the chief ruler of Thibet is called, 
 to carry out his promise about the treaties. The Grand 
 Lama refused to receive Colonel Younghusband, and 
 would have nothing whatever to do with him, rejecting 
 his overtures without explanation and treating his mes- 
 sages with contempt. 
 
 While England was suffering the worst of the disasters 
 of the recent war in South Africa the Russian government 
 sent a secret embassy to Lhassa, carrying rich presents 
 and large sums of money to the Grand Lama, for the 
 
THE INVASION OF THIBET 425 
 
 ostensible purpose of securing permission to construct 
 a branch from its Siberian Railway to Lhassa across 
 Chinese Turkestan. The Grand Lama afterward sent 
 an embassy to return the visit at St. Petersburg, which 
 was received with great honors and presented with rich 
 gifts. The Grand Lama, in recognition of these atten- 
 tions, conferred upon the czar the title of "Lord and 
 Guardian of the Gifts of Faith," It is the supreme Bud- 
 dhist honor, and while the title is empty, it is particularly 
 significant in this case, because it implies protection. It 
 is believed that a secret treaty was made under which 
 Russia promised to guarantee the independence of Thibet 
 and protect that government against invasion in exchange 
 for the privilege of constructing a railway line through its 
 territory. The Thibetans are supposed to have accepted 
 these terms because of their fear of China. Until 1895 
 Thibet was a province of the Chinese Empire, and paid 
 tribute to the emperor every year, but since the war with 
 Japan the Grand Lama has sent no messenger to Peking, 
 has paid no tribute and has ignored the Chinese repre- 
 sentative at Lhassa. The priests postponed negotiations 
 on the pretext that it was necessary to consult Peking, 
 and promised to send a mission to Calcutta within six 
 months, but never have done so. In the meantime there 
 has been continual friction on the border ; the Indian 
 authorities have repeatedly reminded the Grand Lama 
 of his promise and its postponement, but he has stub- 
 bornly refused to communicate with them, and has even 
 returned their communications unopened. 
 
 When the secret relations between Russia and Thibet 
 were discovered the Chinese authorities were naturally 
 indignant and the Indian authorities were alarmed. After 
 a conference China granted permission for England to use 
 
426 MODERN INDIA 
 
 whatever methods it thought best to bring the Grand 
 Lama to terms. Thereupon Colonel Younghusband was 
 sent to Lhassa again. The Grand Lama again refused to 
 see him, declined to appoint an official to confer with 
 him and returned his credentials unopened, and used 
 other means to show his indifference and contempt for 
 India and England. 
 
 When Younghusband returned to Calcutta and re- 
 ported the failure of his mission and the insults offered 
 him Lord Curzon decided that the time had come to act, 
 and as soon as preparations could be made Colonel 
 Younghusband started back to Lhassa escorted by 2,500 
 armed men and carrying provisions for two years. He 
 was instructed to avoid collisions, to make friends with 
 the people, to establish permanent posts on the line of 
 march wherever he thought necessary and to remain at 
 Lhassa until he secured a treaty opening the markets of 
 Thibet to British merchants. The treaty is made, and 
 by its terms the Thibetans are to pay England an indem- 
 nity of $3,750,000 to cover the cost of the expedition. 
 Until the indemnity is paid the Indian troops will con- 
 tinue to occupy the Churubi Valley which leads to 
 Lhassa. 
 
 Lord Curzon did not dispatch this expedition and un- 
 dertake this strategic movement without considering the 
 present situation of Russia. The czar took occasion to 
 engage in negotiations not only with Thibet, but with 
 Afghanistan also, at the very moment when England 
 was suffering her most serious disasters and embarrass- 
 ments of recent history, and is getting tit for tat. Before 
 Colonel Younghusband's expedition was dispatched the 
 British ambassador at St. Petersburg was instructed to 
 inquire if the Russian government had any relations with 
 
THE INVASION OF THIBET 427 
 
 Thibet or any interests there, and was officially informed 
 that it had not, hence the etiquette of the situation had 
 been complied with and Lord Curzon was perfectly free 
 to act. 
 
XXVII 
 
 BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 
 
 No one can realize what an awful religion Brahminism 
 is until he visits Benares, the most sacred city of India, 
 upon the banks of the Ganges, the most sacred river, 
 more holy to more millions of human souls than Mecca to 
 the Moslem, Rome to the Catholic or Jerusalem to the 
 Jew. This marvelous city it so holy that death upon its 
 soil is equivalent to life eternal. It is the gate to para- 
 dise, the abundant entrance to everlasting happiness, and 
 its blessings are comprehensive enough to include all 
 races, all religions and all castes. It is not necessary 
 to be a Brahmin or to worship Siva or Krishna or any 
 other of the Hindu gods, nor even to believe in them. 
 Their grace is sufficient to carry unbelievers to the Hindu 
 heavens provided they die within the area inclosed by a 
 boulevard encircling this city. 
 
 There are in Benares 2,000 temples and innumerable 
 shrines, 25,000 Brahmin priests, monks, fakirs and as- 
 cetics, and it is visited annually by more than half a mil- 
 lion pilgrims — a larger number than may be counted at 
 Mecca or Jerusalem, or at any other of the sacred cities 
 of the world. There are more than 500,000 idols estab- 
 lished in permanent places for worship in Benares, repre- 
 senting every variety of god in the Hindu pantheon, so 
 that all the pilgrims who go there may find consolation and 
 some object of worship. There are twenty-eight sacred 
 
 428 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 429 
 
 cows at the central temples, and perhaps 500 more a, 
 other places of worship throughout the city ; the trees 
 around the temple gardens swarm with sacred monkeys 
 and apes ; there are twenty-two places where the dead 
 are burned, and the air of the city is always darkened 
 during the daytime by columns of smoke that rise from 
 the funeral pyres. No other city, not even London, has 
 so many beggars, religious and otherwise ; nowhere can 
 so many pitiful spectacles of deformity and distress be 
 seen ; nowhere is such gross and repulsive obscenity and 
 sensuality practiced — and all in the name of religion ; 
 nowhere are such sordid deceptions imposed upon super- 
 stitious believers, and nowhere such gloomy, absurd and 
 preposterous methods used for consoling sinners and 
 escaping the results of sin. Although Benares in these re- 
 spects is the most interesting city in India, and one of the 
 most interesting in the world, it is also the most filthy, 
 repulsive and forbidding. Few people care to remain 
 there more than a day or two, although to the ethnologist 
 and other students, to artists and people in search of the 
 picturesque, it has more to offer than can be found else- 
 where in the Indian Empire. 
 
 Benares is as old as Egypt. It is one of the oldest 
 cities in existence. It was already famous when Rome 
 was founded ; even when Joshua and his trumpeters were 
 surrounding the walls of Jericho. It is the hope of every 
 believer in Brahminism to visit Benares and wash away 
 his sins in the water of the sacred Ganges ; the greatest 
 blessing he can enjoy is to die there; hence, the palaces, 
 temples, and lodging-houses which line the river banks 
 are filled with the aged relatives and friends of their 
 owners and with pilgrims who have come from all parts 
 of India to wait with ecstatic patience the summons of 
 
430 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the angel of death in order to go straight to heaven. 
 
 Nothing in all their religion is so dear to devout Hindus 
 as the Ganges. The mysterious cavern in the Himalayas 
 which is supposed to be the source of the river is the 
 most sacred place on earth. It is the fifth head of Siva, 
 and for i,6oo miles to its delta every inch of the banks 
 is haunted with gods and demons, and has been the scene 
 of events bearing upon the faith of two-thirds of the peo- 
 ple of India. The most pious act, and one that counts 
 more than any other to the credit of a human soul on 
 the great books above, is to make a pilgrimage from the 
 source to the mouth of the Ganges. If you have read 
 Kipling's story of "Kim," you will remember the anxiety 
 of the old lama to find this holy stream, and to follow its 
 banks. Pilgrims to Benares and other cities upon the 
 Ganges secure bottles of the precious water for themselves 
 and send them to friends and kindred in foreign lands. 
 No river in all the world is so worshiped, and to die upon 
 its sacred banks and to have one's body burned and his 
 ashes borne away into oblivion upon its tawny current is 
 the highest aspiration of hundreds of millions of people. 
 
 The Ganges is equally sacred to the Buddhist, and 
 Benares is associated more closely with the career of 
 Buddha than any other city. Twenty-five hundred years 
 ago Buddha preached his first sermon there, and for ten 
 centuries or more it was the headquarters of Buddhism. 
 Buddha selected it as the center of his missionary work. 
 He secured the support of its scholars, teachers and 
 philosophers, and from there sent forth missionaries to 
 China, Japan, Burmah, Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, 
 Siam, Thibet, and other countries until half the human 
 race accepted him as divine, his teachings as the law of 
 God, and Benares as the fountain of that faith. It is a 
 
A HINDU ASCETIC— BENARES 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 431 
 
 tradition that one of the wise men who followed the 
 Star of Bethlehem to the Child that was cradled in a 
 manger was a learned pundit from Benares, and it is 
 certainly true that tlie doctors of theology who have 
 lived and taught in the temples and monasteries there 
 have exercised a greater influence upon a larger number 
 of men than those of any other city that ever existed. 
 But in these modern days Benares is wholly given over 
 to ignorance, superstition, vice, filth and idolatry. The 
 pure and lofty doctrines of Buddha are no longer taught. 
 The "Well of Knowledge" is a filthy, putrid hole filled 
 with slime and rotting vegetation. Buddhism has been 
 swept out of India altogether, and Brahminism is taught 
 and practiced there in its most repulsive and depraved 
 forms. 
 
 Occasionally some reformer appears who endeavors to 
 rebuke the depravity and appeals to the thinking members 
 of the Brahmin sect to restore the ancient philosophy 
 and morality of their fathers. I saw such an one at 
 Benares. He lives in a bare and comfortless temple sur- 
 rounded by a garden ; is entirely dependent upon charity ; 
 every mouthful of food that he eats is brought to him by 
 his disciples. He spends his entire time, day and night, 
 in contemplation ; he sleeps when he is exhausted ; he 
 eats when food is handed him, and if he is neglected he 
 starves until some thoughtful person brings him a bowl 
 of rice or curry. He wears nothing but a single shirt 
 of cotton ; he owns nothing in all the world except a 
 brass bowl, which is used for both food and drink, and 
 a few relics of his predecessor and teacher whom he lived 
 with and served and whose mantle fell upon him. To 
 those who come to his temple with serious minds and 
 anxious to know the truth, he talks freely, and his pride 
 
432 MODERN INDIA 
 
 is gratified by having his visitors inscribe their names in 
 a large book which is kept for that purpose. And con- 
 tributions of money are very acceptable because they 
 enable his disciples to circulate his thoughts and dis- 
 courses in printed form. I noticed that most of the names 
 in the visitors' book were those of Americans, and it 
 occurred to me that his contemplations must be seriously 
 disturbed by having so many of them intrude upon him. 
 But he assured me that he was delighted to see every 
 stranger who called; that it gratified him to be able to 
 explain to American travelers the true principles of Brah- 
 minism and the correct doctrines of that sect. This was 
 the more important, he said, because nearly every for- 
 eigner formed his impressions of Brahminism by what 
 he saw and heard among the pilgrims about the temples. 
 It is only by contact with the crowds of eager pilgrims 
 and devotees which throng the streets and temples of 
 Benares that one may realize the vital force which Brah- 
 minism exercises in India. Next to Mohammedanism it 
 is the livest and most influential and practical of all re- 
 ligions. The devotee lives and breathes and feels his 
 faith. It enters every experience of his career, it governs 
 every act, and compared with Brahminism, Christianity 
 is perfunctory and exercises practically little control over 
 its believers. Yet Christianity has come here, as it has 
 entered all the other sacred cities of India, and under 
 the very shadow of the Hindu holy of holies, within the 
 circle that bounds the favored gate of heaven, it has set 
 up and maintained several of the most prosperous and 
 well attended schools in India. The government has 
 established a college of high standard in a handsome 
 gothic building, which many consider the best in India. 
 And all agree that it is an admirable institution. It has 
 
BENARES. THE SACRED CITY 433 
 
 about seven hundred students and teaches modern sci- 
 ences which contradict every principle that the Brahmins 
 propose. There is also a school there for the higher 
 education of women with about 600 students, maintained 
 by the Maharaja of Vizianagram, a learned and progres- 
 sive Hindu prince, who has large estates in the neighbor- 
 hood, and there are several other distinctly modern insti- 
 tutions in whose light Brahminism cannot live. They 
 are growing and it is slowly decaying. The number of 
 devotees and pilgrims who come there is still enormous, 
 but those who have the best means of knowing declare 
 that it is smaller every year. But while the decrease is 
 comparatively small, its significance is great, and so great 
 that prominent Brahmins have recently held a confer- 
 ence to consider what shall be done to protect the faith 
 and defend it against the vigorous assaults of the school 
 teachers, the missionaries and the materialists. 
 
 It does not take Hindus long to learn that the teachings 
 of their priests do not conform to the conditions of mod- 
 ern civilization, and that their practices are not approved 
 by those who believe in modern standards of morals. It 
 is difficult for an educated man to adhere to or accept the 
 teachings of the Hindu priests while their practices are 
 absolutely repugnant to him. The church, therefore, if 
 it may be called a church, must be reformed, and its prac- 
 tices must be revised, if the decay which is now going on 
 is ever arrested. 
 
 Several religions have been born and bred and have 
 died in Benares. Vedic, Moslem, Buddhist, Brahmin 
 have been nursed and flourished and have decayed within 
 the same walls. It is impossible to ascertain when the 
 Ganges was first worshiped, or when people began to 
 build temples upon its banks, or when Benares first be- 
 
434 MODERN INDIA 
 
 came sacred. Water was one of the first objects wor- 
 shiped ; the fertiHzing and life giving influence of a 
 stream was one of the first phenomena of nature recog- 
 nized. Ganga, the beautiful heroine of a Hindu legend, 
 is supposed to have lived at the source of the water to 
 which her name is given, and the river is often repre- 
 sented as flowing from the head of Siva, the chief deity 
 of the Brahmins, the most repulsive, the most cruel, the 
 most vicious of all the gods. 
 
 Siva is at once the generator and the destroyer. He 
 represents time, the sun, water, fire and practically all the 
 mysteries of nature, and Benares is the center of his in- 
 fluence and worship. The temple which attracts the most 
 pilgrims is dedicated to him. The "Well of Knowledge," 
 which is in the courtyard of the Golden Temple, is his 
 chosen residence, and is resorted to by every pilgrim 
 who drinks the putrid water from a ladle with which it 
 is dipped up by the attendant priest. All around the 
 Golden Temple are other temples and shrines dedicated 
 to other gods, but Siva is supreme, and before his image 
 is the kneeling bull, the common symbol of Phallic wor- 
 ship as represented in the legend of Europe. Siva's hair is 
 a bunch of snakes, serpents wind around his neck, arms, 
 waist and legs; a crescent is stamped upon his forehead, 
 which was the chief symbol of the ancient cult of Arabia 
 destroyed by Mohamet Aurangzeb, one of the Mogul 
 emperors, who was a Mohammedan fanatic. He came 
 here in the middle of his reign, destroyed half the Hindu 
 temples and upon the ruins of the oldest and the finest 
 shrine of Siva erected a mosque which still stands 
 and its slender minarets almost pierce the sky. This 
 mosque was thrust into the most sacred place of Hindu 
 worship as an insult to the Brahmins, but the latter are 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 435 
 
 more tolerant, and though they are very largely in the 
 majority and control everything there, they permit it to 
 stand untouched, but the worshipers of Islam are com- 
 pelled to enter it through a side door. This, however, is 
 due more to a desire to preserve the peace and prevent 
 collisions between fanatics and fakirs than for any other 
 reason. 
 
 The great temple of Siva, the Golden Temple, is not 
 imposing. It is a small building with a low dome in the 
 center and a smaller dome at each corner, above which 
 rises an artistic tower. These and the roof are covered 
 with beaten gold ; hence the name of the temple. None 
 but Hindus are permitted to cross the threshold, but 
 strangers are permitted to block up the entrance and see 
 everything that is going on inside. It is crowded with 
 priests, pilgrims and sacred bulls and cows. The 
 floor is covered with filth, the air is fetid and the at- 
 mosphere all around it reeks with offensive odors, sug- 
 gesting all kinds of disease. There is always a policeman 
 to protect strangers from injury or insult, and if you give 
 the priests a little backsheesh they will look out for you. 
 
 Benares is the seventh city in size in India. Ten years 
 ago it was fifth, but between the years 1891 and 1901 
 the population was reduced 10,000 inhabitants by cholera, 
 famine and plague, and it dropped down two pegs in the 
 list. It is a miracle that the entire population does not 
 perish, because, notwithstanding the cautions and efforts 
 of the government, every sanitary law is violated by 
 thousands of people daily. The temples and other places 
 frequented by pilgrims are filthy hotbeds of disease, and 
 the water they drink from the holy wells is absolutely 
 putrid, so that the odor can be detected a considerable 
 distance. And yet half a million devotees from every 
 
436 MODERN INDIA 
 
 part of India come here annually, and not only drink the 
 poisonous stuff, but bathe in the polluted river and carry 
 back to their homes bottles of it carefully corked and 
 labeled, which the doctors tell us is an absolutely certain 
 method of distributing disease. While almost all the 
 large cities of India increased in population during the 
 the last decade, Bombay and Benares fell off, the former 
 from plagues and famine and the latter from all kinds of 
 contagious and other diseases. 
 
 It is a city of great wealth and has many handsome 
 and costly palaces and mansions which have been 
 erected there by pious Hindu princes, rajahs, mer- 
 chants, bankers and others who spend a part of each year 
 within its sacred precincts, renewing their relations with 
 the gods just as other people go to the springs and sea- 
 shore to restore their physical vitality. The residential 
 architecture is picturesque but not artistic. The houses 
 are frequently of fantastic designs, and are painted in 
 gay colors and covered with carvings that are often gro- 
 tesque. They have galleries around them, and broad 
 overhanging eaves to keep out the rays of the sun, and 
 many of them are set in the midst of attractive groves 
 and gardens. Some of the modern buildings are very 
 fine. There is plenty of room for the display of land- 
 scape gardening as well as architecture, but the former 
 has been neglected. The one thing that strikes a stranger 
 and almost bewilders him is the vivid colors. They seem 
 unnatural and inappropriate for a sacred city, but are not 
 more incongruous than other features. 
 
 The streets in the outer part of the city are wide, well 
 paved and well shaded. The business portion of the 
 town, where the natives chiefly live, is a wilderness of 
 narrow streets hemmed in with shops, factories, dwelling 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 437 
 
 houses, temples, shrines, restaurants, cafes and boarding 
 houses for pilgrims. Every shop is open to the street, 
 and the shelves are bright with brass, silver and copper 
 vessels and gaily painted images of the gods which are 
 purchased by the pilgrims and other visitors. Benares 
 is famous all over the world for its brass work and its 
 silks. Half the shops in town are devoted to the sale 
 of brass vessels of various kinds, chiefly bowls of many 
 forms and styles which are required by the pilgrims in 
 performing their religious duties. In addition to these 
 there are a hundred different varieties of domestic and 
 sacred utensils, many of them beautifully chased and 
 engraved, and they are sold to natives at prices that seem 
 absurd, but foreigners are expected to pay much more. 
 Indeed, every purchase is a matter of prolonged negotia- 
 tion. The merchant fixes his price very high and then 
 lowers it gradually as he thinks discreet, according to 
 the behavior of his customer. 
 
 Handmade silks from looms in the cottages of the 
 peasants can still be purchased in Benares and they wear 
 forever. Some are coarse, and some are fine, but they 
 are all peculiar to this place and cannot be purchased 
 elsewhere because the product is limited and merchants 
 cannot buy them in sufficient quantity to make a profit- 
 able trade. The heavier qualities of silk are used chiefly 
 for men's clothing. They wash like linen, they never 
 wear out and are cool and comfortable. The brocades 
 of Benares are equally famous, and are used chiefly for 
 the ceremonial dresses of the rich and fashionable. Some- 
 times they are woven of threads of pure gold and weigh 
 as much as an armor. These are of course very expen- 
 sive, and are usually sold by weight. Very little account 
 is taken of the labor expended upon them, although the 
 
438 MODERN INDIA 
 
 designs and the workmanship are exquisite, because the 
 weavers and embroiderers are paid only a few cents a 
 day. Beside these heavy fabrics are costly tissues as 
 fine as spiders' webs, also woven of silver and gold and 
 silk and linen. They are used by the women as head 
 dresses and scarfs and rich men use them for turbans. 
 Sometimes an Indian noble will have seventy or eighty 
 yards of this delicate gossamer wound about his head and 
 the ends, beautifully embroidered, with long fringes of 
 gold, hang gracefully down upon the shoulders. 
 
 It is almost impossible to go through the narrow streets 
 of Benares in the middle of the day, because they are so 
 crowded with men, women, children, priests, pilgrims, 
 peddlers, beggars, mangy dogs, sacred cows, fat and lazy 
 bulls dedicated to Siva, and other animate and inanimate 
 obstructions. It seems to be the custom for people to 
 live and work in the streets. A family dining will occupy 
 half the roadway as they squat around their brass bowls 
 and jars and cram the rice and millet and curry into their 
 mouths with their fingers. The lower classes of Hindus 
 never use tables, knives or forks. The entire family eats 
 out of the same dish, while the dogs hang around waiting 
 for morsels and a sacred cow is apt to poke its nose into 
 the circle at any time. The street is often blocked up 
 by a carpenter who is mending a cabinet or putting a new 
 board into a floor. 
 
 A little farther along a barber may be engaged in 
 shaving the face and head of some customer. Both of 
 them are squatting face to face, as often in the middle 
 of the road as elsewhere, and with bowls, razors, soap, 
 bottles and other appurtenances of the trade spread out 
 between them. Barbers rank next to priests in the re- 
 ligious aristocracy, and, as it is forbidden by the Brah- 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 439 
 
 mins for a man to shave himself, they are of much im- 
 portance in the villages. Houses are usually set apart 
 for them to live in just as we furnish parsonages for our 
 ministers. The village barber has certain rights and ex- 
 emptions that are not enjoyed by other people. He is not 
 required to do military service in the native states ; he 
 does not have to pay taxes, and all members of his caste 
 have a monopoly of their business, w^hich the courts have 
 sustained. The Brahmins also require that a man must 
 be shaved fasting. 
 
 Another matter of great importance which the barbers 
 have to do with is a little tuft of hair that is allowed to 
 grow from the top of the head of a child when all the rest 
 of the scalp is shaven. This is a commendable precau- 
 tion, and is almost universally taken in the interest of 
 children, the scalp lock being necessary to snatch the 
 child away from the devil and other evil spirits when it is 
 in danger from those sources. As the person grows 
 older and capable of looking after himself this precaution 
 is not so important, although many people wear the scalp 
 lock or sacred topknot through life. 
 
 The sacred thread is even of greater importance in 
 Hinduism, and the Brahmins require that each child 
 shall be invested with it in his eighth year. Until that 
 year also he must bear upon his forehead the sign of his 
 caste, which Ryas, our bearer, calls "the god mark." The 
 sacred thread is a fine silk cord, fastened over the left 
 shoulder, hanging down under the right arm like a sash. 
 None but the two highest castes have the right to wear it, 
 although members of the lower castes are even more 
 careful to do so. It is put on a child by the priest or the 
 parent on its eighth birthday with ceremonies similar 
 and corresponding to those of our baptism. After the 
 
440 MODERN INDIA 
 
 child has been bathed and its head has been carefully 
 shaved it is dressed in new garments, the richest that the 
 family can afford. The priest or godfather ties on the 
 sacred thread and teaches the child a brief Sanskrit text 
 called a mantra, some maxim or proverb, or perhaps it 
 may be only the name of a deity which is to be kept a 
 profound secret and repeated 108 times daily throughout 
 life. The deity selected serves the child through life as 
 a patron saint and protector. Frequently the village bar- 
 ber acts in the place of a priest and puts on the sacred 
 thread. A similar thread placed around the neck of a 
 child, and often around its waist by the midwife immedi- 
 ately after birth, is intended as an amulet or charm to 
 protect from disease and danger. It is usually a strand 
 of silk which has been blessed by some holy man or 
 sanctified by being placed around the neck of an idol of 
 recognized sanctity. 
 
 The streets of the native quarters of Indian cities are 
 filled with naked babies and children. It is unfashionable 
 for the members of either sex to wear clothing until they 
 are 8 or 10 years old. The only garment they wear is 
 the sacred string, with usually a little silver charm or 
 amulet suspended from it. Sometimes children wear 
 bracelets and anklets of silver, which tinkle as they run 
 about the streets. The little rascals are always fat and 
 chubby, and their bright black eyes give them an appear- 
 ance of unnatural intelligence. The children are never 
 shielded from the sun, although its rays are supposed to 
 be fatal to full grown and mature persons. Their heads 
 being shaved, the brain is deprived of its natural protec- 
 tion, and they never wear hats or anything else, and play 
 all day long under the fierce heat in the middle of the 
 road without appearing any the worse for it, although 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 441 
 
 foreign doctors insist that this exposure is one of the chief 
 causes of the enormous infant mortahty in India. This 
 may be true, because a few days after birth babies are 
 strapped upon the back of some younger child or are 
 carried about the streets astride the hips of their mothers, 
 brothers or sisters without any protection from the sun. 
 
 All outdoors is an Indian barber-shop. The barbers 
 have no regular places of business, but wander from 
 house to house seeking and serving customers, or squat 
 down on the roadside and intercept them as they pass. 
 In the large cities you can see dozens of them squatting 
 along the streets performing their sacred offices, shaving 
 the heads and oiling the bodies of customers. Cocoanut 
 oil is chiefly used and is supposed to add strength and 
 suppleness to the body. It is administered with massage, 
 thoroughly rubbed in and certainly cannot injure anybody. 
 In the principal parks of Indian cities, at almost any time 
 in the morning, you can see a dozen or twenty men being 
 oiled and rubbed down by barbers or by friends, and a 
 great deal of oil is used in the hair. After a man is 
 grown he allows his hair to grow long and wears it in a 
 knot at the back of his head. Some Hindus have an 
 abundance of hair, of which they are very proud, and 
 upon which they spend considerable care and labor. 
 
 The parks are not only used for dressing-rooms, but 
 for bedrooms also. Thousands of people sleep in the 
 open air day and night, stretched full length upon the 
 ground. They wrap their robes around their heads and 
 leave their legs and feet uncovered. This is the custom 
 of the Indians of the Andes. No matter how cold or 
 how hot it may be they invariably wrap the head and face 
 up carefully before sleeping and leave the lower limbs 
 exposed. A Hindu does not care where he sleeps. Night 
 
442 MODERN INDIA 
 
 and day arc the same to him. He will lie down on the 
 sidewalk in the blazing sunshine anywhere, pull his robe 
 up over his head and sleep the sleep of the just. You 
 can seldom walk a block without seeing one of these 
 human bundles all wrapped up in white cotton lying on 
 the bare stone or earth in the most casual way, but they 
 are very seldom disturbed. 
 
 You have to get up early in the morning to see the 
 most interesting sights in Benares, which are the pilgrims 
 engaged in washing their sins away in the sacred but 
 filthy waters of the Ganges, and the outdoor cremation 
 of the bodies of people who have died during the night 
 and late in the afternoon of the preceding day. Hindus 
 allow very little time between death and cremation. As 
 soon as the heart ceases to beat the undertakers, as we 
 would call the men who attend to these arrangements, 
 are sent for and preparation for the funeral pyre is com- 
 menced immediately. Three or four hours only are nec- 
 essary, and if death occurs later than i or 2 o'clock in 
 the afternoon the ceremony must be postponed until morn- 
 ing. Hence all of the burning ghats along the river bank 
 are busy from daylight until mid-day disposing of the 
 bodies of those who have died during the previous 
 eighteen or twenty hours. 
 
 The death rate in Benares is very high. Under ordi- 
 nary circumstances it is higher than that of other cities of 
 India because of its crowded and unsanitary condition, 
 and because all forms of contagious diseases are brought 
 by pilgrims who come here themselves to die. As I have 
 already told you, it is the highest and holiest aspiration 
 of a pious Hindu to end his days within an area encircled 
 by what is known as the Panch-Kos Road, which is fifty 
 miles in length and bounds the City of Benares. It starts 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 443 
 
 at one end of the city at the river banks, and the other 
 terminus is on the river at the other end. It describes a 
 parabola. As the city is strung along the bank of the 
 river several miles, it is nowhere distant from the river 
 more than six or seven miles. All who die within this 
 boundary, be they Hindu or Christian, Mohammedan or 
 Buddhist, pagan, agnostic or infidel, or of any other faith 
 or no faith, be they murderers, thieves, liars or violators 
 of law, and every caste, whatever their race, nationality 
 or previous condition, no matter whether they are saints 
 or sinners, they cannot escape admission to Siva's heaven. 
 This is the greatest possible inducement for people to 
 hurry there as death approaches, and consequently the 
 non-resident death rate is abnormally high. 
 
 We started out immediately after daylight and drove 
 from the hotel to the river bank, where, at a landing 
 place, were several boats awaiting other travelers as 
 well as ourselves. They were ordinary Hindu sampans 
 — rowboats with houses or cabins built upon them — and 
 upon the decks of our cabin comfortable chairs were 
 placed for our party. As soon as we were aboard the 
 boatmen shoved off and we floated slowly down the 
 stream, keeping as close to the shore as possible without 
 'jamming into the rickety piers of bamboo that stretched 
 out into the water for the use of bathing pilgrims. 
 
 The bank of the river is one of the most picturesque 
 and imposing panoramas you can imagine. It rises from 
 the water at a steep grade, and is covered with a series 
 of terraces upon which have been erected towers, tem- 
 ples, mosques, palaces, shrines, platforms and pavilions, 
 bathing-houses, hospices for pilgrims, khans or lodging- 
 houses, hospitals and other structures for the accommoda- 
 tion of the millions of people who come there from every 
 
444 MODERN INDIA 
 
 part of India on religious pilgrimages and other missions. 
 These structures represent an infinite variety of architec- 
 ture, from the most severe simpHcity to the fantastic and 
 grotesque. They are surmounted by domes, pinnacles, 
 minarets, spires, towers, cupolas and canopies ; they are 
 built of stone, marble, brick and wood ; they are painted 
 in every variety of color, sober and gay ; the balconies 
 and windows of many of them are decorated with ban- 
 ners, bunting in all shapes and colors, festoons of cotton 
 and silk, garlands of flowers and various expressions of 
 the taste and enthusiasm of the occupants or owners. 
 
 From the Sparrow Hills at Moscow one who has suffi- 
 cient patience can count 555 gilded and painted domes ; 
 from the cupola of St. Peter's one may look down upon 
 the roofs of palaces, cathedrals, columns, obelisks, arches 
 and ruins such as can be seen in no other place ; around 
 the fire tower at Pera are spread the marvelous glories 
 of Stamboul, the Golden Horn and other parts of Con- 
 stantinople ; from the citadel at Cairo you can have a 
 bird's-eye view of one of the most typical cities of the 
 East; from the Eiffel Tower all Paris and its suburbs 
 may be surveyed, and there are many other striking pan- 
 oramas of artificial scenery, but nothing on God's foot- 
 stool resembles the picture of the holy Hindu city that 
 may be seen from the deck of a boat on the Ganges. It 
 has often been described in detail, but it is always new 
 and always different, and it fascinates its witnesses. 
 There is a repulsiveness about it which few people can 
 overcome, but it is unique, and second only to the Taj 
 Mahal of all the sights in India. 
 
 A bathing ghat is a pavilion, pier or platform of stone 
 covered with awnings and roofs to protect the pilgrims 
 from the sun. It reaches into the river, where the water 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 445 
 
 is about two feet deep, and stone steps lead down to the 
 bottom of the stream. Stretching out from these ghats, 
 in order to accommodate a larger number of people, are 
 wooden platforms, piers of slender bamboo, floats and 
 all kinds of contrivances, secure and insecure, temporary 
 and permanent, which every morning are thronged with 
 pilgrims from every part of India in every variety of cos- 
 tumes, crowding in and out of the water, carrying down 
 the sick and dying, all to seek salvation for the soul, 
 relief for the mind and healing for the body which the 
 Holy Mother Ganges is supposed to give. 
 
 The processions of pilgrims seem endless and are at- 
 tended by many pitiful sights. Aged women, crippled 
 men, lean and haggard invalids with just strength enough 
 to reach the water's edge ; poor, shivering, starving 
 wretches who have spent their last farthing to reach this 
 place, exhausted with fatigue, perishing from hunger or 
 disease, struggle to reach the water before their breath 
 shall fail. Here and there in the crowd appear all forms 
 of affliction — hideous lepers and other victims of can- 
 cerous and ulcerous diseases, with the noses, lips, fingers 
 and feet eaten away ; paralytics in all stages of the dis- 
 ease, people whose limbs are twisted with rheumatism, 
 men and women covered with all kinds of sores, fanatical 
 ascetics with their hair matted with mud and their bodies 
 smeared with ashes, ragged tramps, blind and deformed 
 beggars, women leading children or carrying infants in 
 their arms, handsome rajahs, important officials attended 
 by their servants and chaplains, richly dressed women 
 with their faces closely veiled, dignified and thoughtful 
 Brahmins followed by their disciples, farmers, laborers 
 bearing the signs of toil, and other classes of human 
 society in every stage of poverty or prosperity. They 
 
446 MODERN INDIA 
 
 crowd past each other up and down the banks, bathinj:]^ 
 in the water, drying themselves upon the piers or floats, 
 fiUinj; bottles and brass jars from the sacred stream, 
 kneeling to pray, listening to the preachers and absorbed 
 with the single thought upon which their faith is based. 
 
 Such exhibitions of faith can be witnessed nowhere 
 else. It is a daily repetition of the scene described in the 
 New Testament when the afflicted thronged the healing 
 pools. 
 
 After dipping themselves in the water again and again, 
 combing their hair and drying it, removing their drenched 
 robes — all in the open air — and putting on holiday gar- 
 ments, the pilgrims crowed around the priests who sit at 
 the different shrines, and secure from them certificates 
 showing that they have performed their duty to the gods. 
 The Brahmins give each a text or a name of a god to 
 remember and repeat daily during the rest of his or her 
 life, and they pass on to the notaries who seal and stamp 
 the bottles of sacred water, sell idols, amulets, maps of 
 heaven, charts showing the true way of salvation, certifi- 
 cates of purification, remedies for various diseases, and 
 charms to protect cattle and to make crops grow. Then 
 they pass on to other Brahmins, who paint the sign of 
 their god upon their forehead, the frontal mark which 
 every pilgrim wears. Afterward they visit one temple 
 after another until they complete the pilgrimage at the 
 Golden Temple of Siva, where they make offerings of 
 money, scatter barley upon the ground and drop handfuls 
 of rice and grain into big stone receptacles from which 
 the beggars who hang around the temples receive a daily 
 allowance. Finally they go to the priests of the witness- 
 bearing god, Ganasha, where the pilgrimage is attested 
 and recorded. Then they buy a few more idols, images 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 447 
 
 of their favorite gods, and return to their homes with a 
 tale that will be told around the fireside in some remote 
 village during the rest of their lives. 
 
 But the most weird and impressive spectacle at Benares, 
 and one which will never be forgotten, is the burning of 
 the bodies of the dead. At intervals, between the temples 
 along the river bank, are level places belonging to the 
 several castes and leased to associations or individuals 
 who have huge piles of wood in the background and at- 
 tend to the business in a heartless, mercenary way. The 
 cost of burning a body depends upon the amount and kind 
 of fuel used. The lowest possible rate is three rupees 
 or about one dollar in our money. When the family 
 cannot afford that they simply throw the body into the 
 sacred stream and let it float down until the fish devour 
 it. When a person dies the manager of the burning ghat 
 is notified. He sends to the house his assistants or 
 employes, who bring the body down to the river bank, 
 sometimes attended by members of the family, some- 
 times without witnesses. It is not inclosed in a coffin, 
 but lies upon a bamboo litter, and under ordinary circum- 
 stances is covered with a sheet, but when the family is 
 rich it is wrapped in the richest of silks and embroideries, 
 and the coverlet is an expensive Cashmere shawl. 
 
 Arriving at the river an oblong pile of wood is built 
 up and the body is placed upon it. If the family is poor 
 the pile is low, short and narrow, and the limbs of the 
 corpse have to be bent so that they will not extend over 
 the edges, as they often do. When the body arrives it is 
 taken down into the water and laid in a shallow place, 
 where it can soak until the pyre is prepared. Usually 
 the undertakers or friends remove the coverings from the 
 face and splash it liberally from the sacred stream. When 
 
448 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the pyre is ready they lift the body from the Htter, adjust 
 it carefully, pile on wood until it is entirely concealed, 
 then thrust a few kindlings underneath and start the blaze. 
 When the cremation is complete the charred sticks are 
 picked up by the beggars and other poor people who are 
 always hanging around and claim this waste as their per- 
 quisite. The ashes are then gathered up and thrown 
 upon the stream and the current of the Ganges carries 
 them away. 
 
 Certain contractors have the right to search the ground 
 upon which the burning has taken place and the shallow 
 river bed for valuables that escaped the flames. It is 
 customary to adorn the dead with the favorite ornaments 
 they wore when alive, and while the gold will melt and 
 diamonds may turn to carbon, jewels often escape com- 
 bustion, and these contractors are believed to do a good 
 business. 
 
 All this burning takes place in public in the open air, 
 and sometimes fifty, sixty or a hundred fires are blazing 
 at the same moment. You can sit upon the deck of your 
 boat with your kodak in your hand, take it all in and pre- 
 serve the grewsome scene for future reminiscencing. 
 
 While the faith of many make them whole, while re- 
 markable cures are occurring at Benares daily, while the 
 sick and the afflicted have assured relief from every ill 
 and trouble, mental, moral and physical, if they can only 
 reach the water's edge, nevertheless scattered about 
 among the temples, squatting behind pieces of bamboo 
 matting or lacquered trays upon which rows of bottles 
 stand, are native doctors who sell all sorts of nostrums 
 and cure-alls that can possibly be needed by the human 
 family, and each dose is accompanied by a guarantee that 
 it will surely cure. These fellows are ignorant impostors 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 449 
 
 and the municipal authorities are careful to see that their 
 drugs are harmless, while they make no attempt to pre- 
 vent them from swindling the people. It seems to be a 
 profitable trade, notwithstanding the popular faith in the 
 miraculous powers of the river. 
 
 Another class of prosperous humbugs is the fortune- 
 tellers, who are found around every temple and in every 
 public place, ready to forecast the fate of every enterprise 
 that may be disclosed to them ; ready to predict good 
 fortune and evil fortune, and sometimes they display re- 
 markable penetration and predict events with startling 
 accuracy. 
 
 Benares is as sacred to the Buddhists as it is to the 
 Brahmins, for it was here that Gautama, afterward called 
 Buddha (a title which means "The Enlightened"), lived 
 in the sixth century before Christ, and from here he sent 
 out his missionaries to convert the world. Gautama was 
 a prince of the Sakya tribe, and of the Rajput caste. He 
 was born 620 B. C. and lived in great wealth and luxury. 
 Driving in his pleasure grounds one day he met a man 
 crippled with age ; then a second man smitten with an 
 incurable disease ; then a corpse, and finally a fakir or 
 ascetic, walking in a calm, dignified, serene manner. 
 These spectacles set him thinking, and after long reflec- 
 tion he decided to surrender his wealth, to relinquish his 
 happiness, and devote himself to the reformation of his 
 people. He left his home, his wife, a child that had just 
 been born to him, cut off his long hair, shaved his head, 
 clothed himself with rags, and taking nothing with him 
 but a brass bowl from which he could eat his food, and a 
 cup from which he could drink, he became a pilgrim, 
 an inquirer after Truth and Light. Having discovered 
 that he could drink from the hollow of his hand, he gave 
 
450 MODERN INDIA 
 
 away his cup and kept nothing but his bowl. That is 
 the reason why every pilgrim and every fakir, every monk 
 and priest in India carries a brass bowl, for although 
 Buddhism is practically extinct in that country, the teach- 
 ings and the example of Gautama had a perpetual in- 
 fluence over the Hindus. 
 
 After what is called the Great Renunciation, Gautama 
 spent six years mortifying the body and gradually reduced 
 his food to one grain of rice a day. But this brought 
 him neither light nor peace of mind. He thereupon 
 abandoned further penance and devoted six years to medi- 
 tation, sitting under the now famous bo-tree, near the 
 modern town of Gaya. In the year 588 B. C. he obtained 
 Complete Enlightenment, and devoted the rest of his life 
 to the instruction of his disciples. He taught that all 
 suffering is caused by indulging the desires; that the 
 only hope of relief lies in the suppression of desire, and 
 impressed his principles upon more millions of believers 
 than those of any other religion. It is the boast of the 
 Buddhists that no life was ever sacrificed ; that no blood 
 was ever shed ; that no suffering was ever caused by the 
 propagation of that faith and the conversion of the world. 
 
 After he became "enlightened," Gautama assumed the 
 name of Buddha and went to Benares, w'here he taught 
 and preached, and had a monastery at the town called 
 Sarnath, now extinct, in the suburbs. There, surrounded 
 by heaps of ruins and rubbish, stand two great topes or 
 towers, the larger of which marks the spot where Buddha 
 preached his first sermon. It is supposed to have been 
 built in the sixth century of the Chinese era, for Hiouen 
 Thsang, a Chinese traveler who visited Sarnath in the 
 seventh century, describes the tower and monastery which 
 was situated near it. It is one of the most interesting 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 451 
 
 as it is one of the most ancient monuments in India, but 
 we do not quite understand the purpose for which it was 
 erected. It is 1 10 feet high, 93 feet in diameter, and built 
 of solid masonry with the exception of a small chamber 
 in the center and a narrow shaft or chimney running up 
 to the top. The lower half is composed of immense 
 blocks of stone clamped together with iron, and at inter- 
 vals the monument was encircled by bands of sculptured 
 relief fifteen feet wide. The upper part was of brick, 
 which is now in an advanced state of decay and covered 
 with a heavy crop of grass and bushes. A large tree 
 grows from the top. 
 
 There used to be an enormous monastery in the neigh- 
 borhood, of which the ruins remain. The cells and chap- 
 els were arranged around a square court similar to the 
 cloisters of modern monasteries. A half mile distant is 
 another tower and the ruins of other monasteries, and 
 every inch of earth in that part of the city is associated 
 with the life and labor of the great apostle of peace and 
 love, whose theology of sweetness and light and gentle- 
 ness was in startling contrast with the atrocious doctrines 
 taught by the Brahmins and the hideous rites practiced 
 at the shrines of the Hindu gods. But these towers are 
 not the oldest relics of Buddha. At Gaya, where he re- 
 ceived the "enlightenment," the actual birthplace of 
 Buddhism, is a temple built in the year 500 A. D., and it 
 stands upon the site of one that was 700 or 800 years 
 older. 
 
 Benares is distinctly the city of Siva, but several thou- 
 sand other gods are worshiped there, including his several 
 wives. Uma is his first wife, and she is the exact coun- 
 terpart of her husband ; Sati is his most devoted wife ; 
 Karali is his most horrible wife ; Devi, another of his 
 
452 MODERN INDIA 
 
 wives, is the goddess of death ; Kali is the goddess of 
 misfortune, and there are half a dozen other ladies of his 
 household whose business seems to be to terrorize and 
 distress their worshipers. But that is the ruling feature 
 of the Hindu religion. There is no sweetness or light' in 
 its theology — it exists to make people unhappy and 
 wretched, and to bring misery, suffering and crime into 
 the world. 
 
 The Hindus fear their gods, but do not love them, 
 with perhaps the exception of Vishnu, the second person 
 in the Hindu trinity, while Brahma is the third. These 
 three are the supreme deities in the pantheon, but Brahma 
 is more of an abstract proposition than an actual god. 
 For purposes of worship the Hindus may be divided into 
 two classes — the followers of Siva and the followers of 
 Vishnu. They can be distinguished by the "god marks" 
 or painted signs upon their foreheads. Those who wear 
 red are the adherents of Siva, and the followers of Vishnu 
 wear white. Subordinate to these two great divinities 
 are millions of other gods, and it would take a volume 
 to describe their various functions and attributes. 
 
 Vishnu is a much more agreeable god than Siva, the 
 destroyer; he has some human feeling, and his various 
 incarnations are friendly heroes, who do kind acts and 
 treat their worshipers tolerably well. 
 
 The "Well of Healing," one of the holiest places in 
 Benares, is dedicated to Vishnu. He dug it himself, 
 making a cavity in the rock. Then, in the absence of 
 water, he filled it with perspiration from his own body. 
 This remarkable assertion seems to be confirmed by the 
 foul odor that arises from the water, which is three feet 
 deep and about the consistency of soup. It looks and 
 smells as if it might have been a sample brought from 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 453 
 
 the Chicago River before the drainage canal was finished. 
 It is fed by an invisible spring, and there is no overflow, 
 because, after bathing in it to wash away their sins, the 
 pilgrims drink several cups of the filthy liquid, which 
 often nauseates them, and it is a miracle that any of them 
 survive. 
 
 One of the most curious and picturesque of all the 
 temples is that of the goddess Durga, a fine building 
 usually called the Monkey Temple because of the number 
 of those animals inhabiting the trees around it. They 
 are very tame and cunning and can spot a tourist as far 
 as they can see him. When they see a party of strangers 
 approaching the temple they begin to chatter in the trees 
 and then rush for the courtyard of the temple, where they 
 expect to be fed. It is one of the perquisites of the 
 priests to sell rice and other food for them at prices about 
 ten times more than it is worth, but the tourist has the 
 fun of tossing it to them and making them scramble for it. 
 As Durga is the most terrific of all of Siva's wives, and 
 delights in death, torture, bloodshed and every form of 
 destruction, the Hindus are very much afraid of her and 
 the peace offerings left at this temple are more liberal 
 than at the others, a fact very much appreciated by the 
 priests. 
 
 Another of the most notable gods worshiped at Benares 
 is Ganesa, the first born of Siva and one of his horrible 
 wives. He is the God of Prudence and Policy, has the 
 head of an elephant, which is evidence of sagacity, and 
 is attended by rats, an evidence of wisdom and foresight. 
 He has eight hands, and from the number of appeals 
 that are made to him he must keep them all busy. He 
 is invoked by Hindus of all sects and castes before under- 
 taking any business of importance. It is asserted that 
 
454 MODERN INDIA 
 
 none of the million deities is so often addressed as the 
 God of Wisdom and Prudence. If a man is undertaking 
 any great enterprise, if he is starting in a new business, 
 or signing a contract, or entering a partnership ; if he is 
 about to take a journey or buy a stock of goods or engage 
 in a negotiation, he appeals to Ganesa to assist him, and 
 leaves an offering at one of his temples as a sort of bribe. 
 If a woman is going to make a dress, or a servant changes 
 his employer, or if anyone begins any new thing, it is 
 always safer to appeal in advance to Ganesa, because he is 
 a sensitive god, and if he does not receive all the atten- 
 tion and worship he deserves is apt to be spiteful. Some 
 people are so particular that they never begin a letter 
 without saluting him in the first line. 
 
 Driving along the roads of this part of India one often 
 sees stones piled up against the trunk of a tree and at the 
 top a rude elephant's head, decorated with flowers or 
 stained with oil or red paint, and there will always be a 
 little heap of gravel before it. That elephant's head rep- 
 resents the god Ganesa, and each stone represents an 
 offering by some one who has passed by, usually the 
 poorest, who have not been able to visit the temple, and, 
 having nothing else to ofifer, not even a flower, drop a 
 stone before the rude shrine. 
 
 There are many sacred cows in Benares. You find 
 them in temples and wandering around the streets. Some 
 of them are horribly diseased and they are all lazy, fat 
 and filthy. They have perfect freedom. They are al- 
 lowed to wander about and do as they please. They feed 
 from baskets of vegetables and salad that stand before 
 the groceries and in the markets, and sometimes con- 
 sume the entire stock of some poor huckster, who dare 
 not drive them away or even rebuke them. If he should 
 
BENARES, THE SACRED CITY 455 
 
 attempt to do so the gods would visit him with perpetual 
 misfortunes. Children play around the beasts, but no 
 one ever abuses them. Pilgrims buy food for them and 
 stuff them with sweetmeats, and it is an act of piety and 
 merit to hang garlands over their horns and braid ribbons 
 in their tails. When they die they are buried with great 
 ceremony, like the sacred bulls of Egypt. 
 
 Benares is the principal center of the idol trade, and a 
 large part of the population are engaged in making 
 images of the various gods in gold, silver, brass, copper, 
 wood, stone, clay and other materials. Most of the work 
 is done in the households. There are several small 
 factories, but none employs more than ten or a dozen 
 men, and the streets are lined with little shops, no bigger 
 than an ordinary linen closet in an American house. Each 
 opens entirely upon the street, there are no doors or win- 
 dows, and when the proprietor wants to close he puts 
 up heavy wooden shutters that fit into grooves in the 
 threshold and the beam that sustains the roof. The 
 shelves that hang from the three walls are covered with 
 all kinds of images in all sizes and of all materials, and 
 between sales the proprietor squats on the floor in the 
 middle of his little establishment making more. The 
 largest number are made of brass and clay. They are 
 shaped in rude molds and afterward finished with the file 
 and chisel. The large idols found in the temples are 
 often works of art, but many of them and some of the 
 most highly revered are of the rudest workmanship. 
 
 There is a funny story that has been floating about for 
 many years that most of the idols worshiped in heathen 
 lands are made in Christian countries and shipped over 
 by the car load. This is certainly not true so far as 
 India is concerned. There is no evidence upon the 
 
456 MODERN INDIA 
 
 records of the custom-house to show that any idols are 
 imported and it would be impossible for any manufacturer 
 in the United States or Europe to compete with the 
 native artisans of Benares or other cities. 
 
XXVIII 
 
 AMERICAN MISSIONS IN INDIA 
 
 About 5,000 missionaries of various religions and cults 
 are working among the people of India ; two-thirds of 
 them Protestants, and about 1,500 Americans, including 
 preachers, teachers, doctors, nurses, editors and all con- 
 cerned. Their names fill a large directory, and they rep- 
 resent all grades and shades of theology, philosophy, 
 morality and other methods of making human beings 
 better, and providing for the salvation of their souls. 
 India is a fertile and favorite field for such work. The 
 languid atmosphere of the country and the contemplative 
 disposition of the native encourage it. The Aryan always 
 was a good listener, and you must remember that India is 
 a very big country — a continent, indeed, with a mixed 
 multitude of 300,000,000 souls, some striving for the 
 unattainable and others hopelessly submerged in bogs 
 of vice, superstition and ignorance. There are several 
 stages of civilization also. You can find entire tribes 
 who still employ stone implements and weapons, and 
 several provinces are governed by a feudal system like 
 that of Europe in the middle ages. There are thousands 
 who believe that marriage is forbidden by the laws of 
 nature ; there are millions of men with several wives, and 
 many women with more than one husband. There are 
 tribes in which women control all the power, hold all the 
 offices, own all the property and keep the line of inherit- 
 
 4b7 
 
458 MODERN INDIA 
 
 ance on their side. There are vast multitudes, on the 
 other hand, in India who beheve that women have no 
 souls and no hereafter, and advocate the murder of girl 
 babies as fast as they are born, saving just enough to do 
 the cooking and mending and to keep the race alive. 
 Communities that have reached an intellectual culture 
 above that of any nation in Europe are surrounded by 
 250,000,000 human beings who cannot read or write. 
 There are thinkers who have reasoned out the profound- 
 est problems that have ever perplexed mankind, and 
 framed systems of philosophy as wise as the world has 
 ever known, and many of their wives and daughters have 
 never been outside of the houses in which they were born ; 
 all of which indicates the size of the field of missionary 
 labor and the variety of work to be done. 
 
 India contains some of the most sublime and beautiful 
 of all the non-Christian religions, and perfect systems 
 of morals devised by men who do not believe in a future 
 life. More than 60,000,000 of the inhabitants accept 
 Jesus Christ as an inspired teacher and worship the same 
 God that we do under another name, and more than three 
 times that number believe that the Ruler of All Things 
 is a demon who delights in cruelty and slaughter and 
 gives his favor only in exchange for suffering and tor- 
 ture. A tribe in northwest India believes that God lives 
 on the top of a mountain in plain sight of them, and up 
 in the northeast are the Nagas, who declare that after the 
 Creator made men He put them into a cellar from which 
 they escaped into the world because one day he forgot 
 to put back the stone that covers a hole in the top. More 
 fantastic theories about the origin and the destiny of man 
 are to be found in India than in any other country, and 
 those who have faith in them speak 167 different Ian- 
 
AMERICAN MISSIONS IN INDIA 459 
 
 guages, as returned by the census. Some of these lan- 
 guages are spoken by milHons of people; others by a 
 few thousand only ; some of them have a literature of 
 poetry and philosophy that has survived the ages, while 
 others are unwritten and only used for communication by 
 wild and isolated tribes in the mountains or the jungles. 
 
 Christian missionaries have been at work in India for 
 four hundred years. St. Francis Xavier was one of the 
 pioneers. Protestants have been there for a little more 
 than a century, and since 1804 have distributed 13,000,000 
 of Bibles. During the last ten years they have sold 
 5,000,000 copies of the Scriptures either complete or in 
 part; for the Gospels in each of the great Indian lan- 
 guages, like two sparrows, can now be bought for a 
 farthing. In 1898, 497,000 copies were issued ; in 1902, 
 more than 600,000; and thus the work increases. More 
 than 140 colporteurs, or agents, mostly natives, are ped- 
 dling the Bible for sale in different parts of India. They 
 do nothing else. More than 400 native women are 
 engaged in placing it in the secluded homes of the Hindus 
 among women of the harems, and teaching them to read 
 it. No commercial business is conducted with greater 
 energy, eterprise and ability than the work of the Bible 
 Society, in this empire, and while the missionaries have 
 enormous and perplexing difficulties to overcome, they, 
 too, are making remarkable headway. 
 
 You frequently hear thoughtless people, who know 
 nothing of the facts, but consider it fashionable to sneer 
 at the missionaries, declare that Hindus never are con- 
 verted. The official census of the government of India, 
 which is based upon inquiries made directly of the indi- 
 viduals themselves, by sworn agents, and is not compiled 
 from the reports of the missionary societies, shows an 
 
46o MODERN INDIA 
 
 increase in the number of professing Christians from 
 2,036,000 in 1891 to 2,664,000 in 1901, a gain of 625,000, 
 or 30 per cent in ten years, and in some of the provinces 
 it has been remarkable. In the Central Provinces and 
 United Provinces the increase in the number of persons 
 professing Christianity, according to the census, was 
 more than 300 per cent. In Assam, which is in the 
 northeastern extremity of India, and the Punjab, which 
 occupies a similar position in the northwest, the increase 
 was nearly 200 per cent. In Bengal, of which Calcutta is 
 the chief city, the gain was nearly 50 per cent ; in the 
 province of Bombay it was nearly 40 per cent, and in 
 Madras and Burmah it was 20 per cent. 
 
 The dean of the American missionary colony is Rev. 
 R. A. Hume, of Ahmednagar, who belongs to the third, 
 and his daughter to the fourth, generation of mission- 
 aries in the family. He was born in Bombay, where his 
 father and his grandfather preached and taught for many 
 years. Rev. Mr. Ballantine, the grandfather of Mrs. 
 Hume, went over from southern Indiana in 1835 and 
 settled at Ahmednagar, where the Protestants had begun 
 work four years previous. 
 
 The first Christian mission ever undertaken by Ameri- 
 cans in a foreign country was at Bombay in 1813, when 
 Gordon Hall and Samuel Newall, fresh from Williams 
 College, went to convert the heathen Hindus. The gov- 
 ernor general and the officials of the East India Company 
 ordered them away, for fear that they would stir up 
 trouble among the natives and suffer martyrdom, but 
 they would not go, and were finally allowed to remain 
 under protest. A Baptist society in England had sent out 
 three men — Messrs. Carey, Ward and Marshman — a few 
 years before. They went to Calcutta, but the East India 
 
AMERICAN MISSIONS IN INDIA 461 
 
 Company would not permit them to preach or teach, so 
 they removed to Gerampore, where they undertook evan- 
 gelical work under the protection of the Dutch. But 
 nowadays the British government cannot do enough to 
 help the missionaries, particularly the Americans, who are 
 treated in the same generous manner as those of the 
 Established Church of England, and are given grants of 
 money, land and every assistance that they officially could 
 receive. 
 
 Speaking of the services of the missionaries during the 
 recent famine. Lord Curzon? said : "I have seen cases 
 where the entire organization of a vast area and the 
 lives of thousands of beings rested upon the shoulders of 
 a single individual, laboring on in silence and in solitude, 
 while his bodily strength was fast ebbing away. I have 
 known of natives who, inspired by his example, have 
 thrown themselves with equal ardor into the struggle, and 
 have unmurmuringly laid down their lives for their 
 countrymen. Particularly must I mention the noble 
 efforts of missionary agencies of various Christian denom- 
 inations. If there ever was an occasion in which it was 
 open to them to vindicate the highest standards of their 
 beneficent calling it was here, and strenuously and faith- 
 fully have they performed the task." 
 
 In 1901 the government of India recognized the labors 
 and devotion of the American missionaries during the 
 previous famine by bestowing upon Dr. Hume the 
 Xaiser-I-Hind gold medal, which is never bestowed except 
 for distinguished public services, and is not conferred 
 every year. It is considered the highest honor that can 
 be bestowed upon a civilian. 
 
 Sir Muncherjee Bharnajgree, a Parsee member of par- 
 liament, recently asserted that the American missionaries 
 
462 MODERN INDIA 
 
 were doing more for the industrial development of the 
 Indian Empire than the government itself. The govern- 
 ment recognizes the importance of their work and has 
 given liberal grants to the industrial schools of the Ameri- 
 can Board of Foreign Missions, which are considered 
 the most successful and perhaps the most useful in India. 
 It is significant to find that the most important of these 
 schools was founded by Sir D. M. Petit, a wealthy Parsee 
 merchant and manufacturer, at the city of Ahmednagar, 
 where 400 bright boys are being trained for mechanics 
 and artisans under the direction of James Smith, formerly 
 of Toronto and Chicago. D. C. Churchill, formerly of 
 Oberlin, Ohio, and a graduate of the Boston School of 
 Technology, a mechanical engineer of remarkable genius, 
 has another school in which hand weaving of fine fabrics 
 is taught to forty or fifty boys who show remarkable 
 skill. ]\Ir. Churchill, who came out in 1901, soon de- 
 tected the weakness of the native method of weaving, 
 and has recently invented a hand loom which can turn 
 out thirty yards of cloth a day, and will double, and in 
 many cases treble, the productive capacity of the average 
 worker. And he expects soon to erect a large building 
 in which he can set up the new looms and accommodate 
 a much larger number of pupils. J. B. Knight, a scientific 
 agriculturist who also came out in 1901, has a class of 
 forty boys, mostly orphans whose fathers and mothers 
 died during the late famine. They are being trained in 
 agricultural chemistry and kindred subjects in order to 
 instruct the native farmers throughout that part of the 
 country. Rev. R. Windsor, of Oberlin, is running 
 another school founded by Sir D. M. Petit at Sirur, 125 
 miles east of Bombay, where forty boys are being edu- 
 cated as machinists and mechanics. At Ahmednagar, 
 
AMERICAN MISSIONS IN INDIA 463 
 
 Mrs. VVagentreiver has a school of 125 women and girls, 
 mostly widows and orphans of the late famine, who are 
 being taught the art of lacemaking, and most of her 
 graduates are qualified to serve as instructors in other 
 lace schools which are constantly being established in 
 other parts of India. There is also a school for potters, 
 and the Americans are sending to the School of Art at 
 Bombay sixty boys to be designers, draughtsmen, illus- 
 trators and qualified in other of the industrial arts. 
 
 It is interesting to discover that the School of Indus- 
 trial Arts founded by Sir D. M. Petit at Ahmednagar 
 owes its origin to the Chicago Manual Training School, 
 whose aims and methods were carefully studied and 
 applied to Indian conditions with equally satisfactory 
 results. The principal and founder of the school, James 
 Smith, was sent out and is supported by the New England 
 Congregational Church on the North Side, Chicago, and 
 generous financial assistance has been received from Mr. 
 Victor F. Lawson and other members of that church. 
 It was started in 1891 with classes in woodwork and 
 mechanical drawing, and has prospered until it has now 
 outgrown in numbers and importance the high school 
 with which it was originally connected. 
 
 This school is the most conspicuous example of com- 
 bined English education and industry in western India, 
 and has received the highest praise from government 
 officers. Its grant from the government, too, is higher 
 than that of any other school in the province. The gov- 
 ernment paid half of the cost of all the buildings and 
 equipments, while a very large part of the other half was 
 paid by people of this country, foremost among the 
 donors being the late Sir D. M. Petit, Bart., who built 
 and equipped the first building entirely at his own expense. 
 
464 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Mr. Churchill's workshops have also been very highly 
 commended by the government inspectors, and his in- 
 vention has attracted wide notice because it has placed 
 within reach of the local weavers an apparatus which is 
 an immense saving in labor and will secure its operators 
 at least three times the results and compensations for the 
 same expenditure of time and toil. It thus affords them 
 means of earning a more comfortable living, and at the 
 same time gives the people a supply of cheap cotton 
 cloth which they require, and utilizes defective yarn 
 which the steam power mills cannot use. The govern- 
 ment inspectors publicly commend Mr. Churchill for de- 
 clining to patent his invention and for leaving it free to 
 be used by everybody without royalty of any kind. 
 
 It is exceedingly gratifying to hear from all sides 
 these and other similar encomiums of the American mis- 
 sionaries, and it makes a Yankee proud to see the respect 
 that is felt for and paid to them. Lord Curzon, the gov- 
 ernors of the various provinces and other officials are 
 hearty in their commendation of American men and 
 women and American methods, and especially for the 
 services our missionaries rendered during the recent 
 famines and plagues. They testify that in all popular 
 discontent and uprisings they have exerted a powerful 
 influence for peace and order and for the support of the 
 government. Lord Northcote, recently governor of Bom- 
 bay, in a letter to President Roosevelt, said : 
 
 "In Ahmednagar I have seen for myself what prac- 
 tical results have been accomplished, and during the 
 famine we owed much to the practical schemes of benevo- 
 lence of the American missionaries." 
 
 On the first of January, 1904, the viceroy of India 
 bestowed upon William I. Chamberlin of the American 
 
AMERICAN MISSIONS IN INDIA 465 
 
 Mission College at Madras the Kaiser-I-Hind gold medal 
 for his services to the public. A similar medal was con- 
 ferred upon Dr. Louis Klopsch of the Christian Herald, 
 New York, who collected and forwarded $6oo,cxx> for 
 direct famine relief and provided for the support of 
 5,000 famine orphans for five years. Other large sums 
 were sent from the United States. The money was not 
 given away. The American committee worked in co- 
 operation with the agents of the government and other 
 relief organizations, so as to avoid duplication. They 
 provided clothing for the naked and work at reasonable 
 wages for the starving. They bought seed for farmers 
 and assisted them to hire help to put it in the ground. 
 The rule of the committee in the disbursement of this 
 money was not to pauperize the people, but to help those 
 who helped themselves, and to require a return in some 
 form for every penny that was given. Dr. Hume says: 
 "The gift was charity, but the system was business." 
 The American relief money directly and indirectly 
 reached several millions of people and has provided for 
 the maintenance and education of more than five thou- 
 sand orphans, boys and girls, who were left homeless 
 and helpless when their fathers and mothers died of 
 starvation. More than 320 widows, entirely homeless, 
 friendless and dependent, were placed in comfortable 
 quarters, taught how to work, and are now self-support- 
 ing. Two homes for widows are maintained by the mis- 
 sionaries of the American Board, one in Bombay in 
 charge of Miss Abbott and her sister, Mrs. Dean, with 
 nearly 200 inmates, and the other at Ahmednagar, in 
 charge of Mrs. Hume. 
 
 The medical and dispensary work of the American 
 missions is also very extensive, and its importance to the 
 
466 MODERN INDIA 
 
 peasant class and the blessings it confers upon the poor 
 cannot be realized by those people who have never visited 
 India and other countries of the East and seen the condi- 
 tion of women. As I told you in a previous chapter, 
 ninety per cent of the Hindu population of India will 
 not admit men physicians to their homes to see women 
 patients, and the only relief that the wives, mothers and 
 daughters and sisters in the zenanas can obtain when 
 they are ill is from the old-fashioned herb doctors and 
 charm mixers of the bazaars. Now American women 
 physicians are scattered all over India healing the 
 wounded and curing the sick. There are few from other 
 countries, although the English, Scotch and German Luth- 
 erans have many missions. 
 
XXIX 
 
 COTTON, TEA, AND OPIUM 
 
 Next to the United States, India is the largest cotton- 
 producing country in the world, and, with the exception 
 of Galveston and New Orleans, Bombay claims to be the 
 largest cotton market. The shipments have never reached 
 $50,000,000 a year, but have gone very near that point. 
 Every large state in southern India produces cotton, but 
 Bombay and Berar are the principal producers. The 
 area for the whole of India in 1902-3 was 14,232,000 
 acres, but this has been often exceeded. In 1893-4 the 
 area planted was nearly 15,500,000. The average is 
 about 14,000,000 acres. Cotton is usually grown in con- 
 junction with some other crop, and in certain portions 
 of India two crops a year are produced on the same soil. 
 The following table will show the number of bales pro- 
 duced during the years named : 
 
 Bales of Bales of 
 
 400 lbs. 400 lbs. 
 
 1892-3 1,924,000 1897-8 2,198,000 
 
 1893-4 2,180,000 1898-9 2,425,000 
 
 1894-5 1,957,000 1899-0 843,000 
 
 1895-6 2,364,000 I9OO-I 2,309,000 
 
 1896-7 1,929,000 I9OI-2 1,969,000 
 
 The failure of the crop in 1899- 1 900 was due to the 
 drought which caused the great famine. 
 
 About one-half of the crop is used in the local mills. 
 
 467 
 
468 ^lODERN INDIA 
 
 The greater part of the remainder is shipped to Japan, 
 which is the best customer. Germany comes next, and, 
 curiously enough, Great Britain is one of the smallest 
 purchasers. Indian cotton is exclusively of the short 
 staple variety and not nearly so good as that produced in 
 Egypt. Repeated attempts have been made to introduce 
 Egptian cotton, but, while some of the experiments have 
 been temporarily successful, it deteriorates the second 
 year. 
 
 The cost of producing cotton is very much less than in 
 the United States, because the land always yields a second 
 crop of something else, which, under ordinary circum- 
 stances, ought to pay taxes and often fixed charges, as 
 well as the wages of labor, which are amazingly low, 
 leaving the entire proceeds of the cotton crop to be counted 
 as clear gain. The men and women who work in the 
 cotton fields of India are not paid more than two dollars a 
 month. That is considered very good wages. All the 
 shipping is done in the winter season ; the cotton is 
 brought in by railroad and lies in bags on the docks until 
 it is transferred to the holds of ships. During the winter 
 season the cotton docks are the busiest places around 
 Bombay. 
 
 The manufacture of cotton is increasing rapidly. There 
 are now eighty-four mills in Bombay alone, with a capital 
 of more than $25,000,000, and all of them have been estab- 
 lished since 1870, including some of the most modern, 
 up-to-date plants in existence. The people of Bombay 
 have about $36,000,000 invested in mills, most of it being 
 owned by Parsees. There are mills scattered all over the 
 country. The industry dates from 185 1, and during the 
 last twenty years the number of looms has increased 160 
 per cent and spindles 172 per cent. January i, 1891, there 
 
COTTON, TEA AND OPIUM 469 
 
 were 127 mills, with 117,922 operatives, representing an 
 investment of £7,844,000. On the 31st of March, 1904, 
 according to the official records, there were 201 cotton 
 mills in India, containing 43,676,000 looms and 5,164,360 
 spindles, with a combined capital of £12,175,000. This 
 return, however, does not include thirteen mills which 
 were not heard from, and they will probably increase the 
 number of looms and spindles considerably and the total 
 capital to more than $60,000,000. 
 
 The wages paid operatives in the cotton mills of India 
 are almost incredibly low. I have before me an official 
 statement from a mill at Cawnpore, which is said to give 
 a fair average for the entire country. The mills of Bom- 
 bay, Madras and Calcutta and other large cities pay 
 about one-half more. At smaller places farther in the 
 north the rates are much less. The wages are given in 
 rupees and decimals of a rupee, which in round numbers 
 is worth 33 cents in our money. 
 
 MONTHLY WAGES IN A COTTON MILL AT CAWNPORE FOR 
 
 THE YEARS NAMED (iN RUPEES AND DECIMALS 
 
 OF A rupee). 
 
 1885. 1890. 1900. 1903. 
 
 Cardroom — 
 
 Head mistry 17.00 24.80 34.90 33.00 
 
 Card cleaner 5.00 5.25 8.70 8.84 
 
 Spare hands 5.00 5.25 5.90 6.58 
 
 Muleroom — 
 
 Head mistry 8.50 19.60 34.00 36.42 
 
 Minder 5.00 6.37 6.20 7.12 
 
 Spare hands 5.00 5.00 6.00 6.50 
 
 Weaving department — 
 
 Mistry 13.50 18.00 18.80 17.81 
 
470 MODERN INDIA 
 
 Heakler 5.00 5.50 7.60 7.09 
 
 Weaver 6.00 10.50 8.62 9.14 
 
 Finishing department — 
 
 Washers and bleachers ... . 6.00 18.00 18.70 21.25 
 
 Dyer 5.00 5.50 5.50 6.08 
 
 Finishing man 5.00 5.50 6.00 6.53 
 
 Engineering shop — 
 
 Boiler mistry 6.00 9.00 9.30 10.16 
 
 Engine man 8.00 11.00 10.80 14.62 
 
 Oil man 6.00 6.00 6.20 6.64 
 
 Boiler man 6.00 6.00 6.90 7.31 
 
 Carpenter 10.00 10.00 11. 10 11.67 
 
 Blacksmith 11.50 13.50 13.80 15.84 
 
 Fitter 10.00 ii.oo 13.98 
 
 These wages, however, correspond with those received 
 by persons in other lines of employment. The postmen 
 employed by the government, or letter carriers as we call 
 them, receive a maximum of only 12.41 rupees a month, 
 which is about $3.50, and a minimum of 9.25, which is 
 equivalent to $3.08 in our money. Able-bodied and 
 skilled mechanics — masons, carpenters and blacksmiths — 
 get no more than $2.50 to $3.50 a month, and book- 
 keepers, clerks and others having indoor occupations, 
 from $4.10 to $5.50 per month. Taking all of the wage- 
 earners together in India, their compensation per month 
 is just about as much as the same class receive per day in 
 the United States. 
 
 The encouragement of manufacturing is one of the 
 methods the government has adopted to prevent or miti- 
 gate famines, and its policy is gradually becoming felt 
 by the increase of mechanical industries and the employ- 
 ment of the coolie class in lines other than agriculture. 
 
COTTON, TEA AND OPIUM 471 
 
 At the same time, the problem is complicated by the fact 
 that the greater part of the mechanical products of India 
 have always been produced in the households. Each vil- 
 lage has its own weavers, carpenters, brass workers, 
 blacksmiths and potters, who are not able to compete with 
 machine-made goods. Many of these local craftsmen 
 have attained a high standard of artistic skill in making 
 up silk, wool, linen, cotton, carpets, brass, iron, silver, 
 wood, ivory and other materials. But their arts must 
 necessarily decay or depreciate if the local markets are 
 flooded with cheap products from factories, and there a 
 question of serious consequence has arisen. 
 
 There is very active rivalry in the tea trade of late 
 years. China formerly supplied the world. Thirty years 
 ago very little was exported from any other country. 
 Then Japan came in as an energetic competitor and sent 
 its tea around everywhere, but the consumption increased 
 as rapidly as the cultivation, so that China kept her share 
 of the trade. About fifteen years ago India came into 
 the market; and then Ceylon. The Ceylon export trade 
 has been managed very skillfully. There has been an 
 enormous increase in the acreage planted, and 92 per 
 cent of the product has been sent to the United King- 
 dom, where it has gradually supplanted that of China and 
 Japan. Australia has also become a large consumer "of 
 India tea, and the loyalty with which the two great col- 
 onies of Great Britain have stood together is commenda- 
 ble. In England alone the consumption of India tea has 
 increased nearly 70 per cent within the last ten years. 
 This is the result of careful and intelligent efifort on the 
 part of the government. While wild tea is found in 
 Assam and in several of the states adjoining the Hima- 
 layas, tea growing is practically a new thing in India 
 
4/2 MODERN INDIA 
 
 compared with China aiul Japan, It was not until 1830, 
 when Lord WilHam Benthinck was viceroy, that any con- 
 siderable amount of tea was produced in India. He in- 
 troduced the plant from China and brought men from 
 that country at the expense of the East India Company 
 to teach the Hindus how to cultivate it. For many years 
 the results were doubtful and the efforts of the govern- 
 ment were ridiculed. But for the great faith of two or 
 three patriotic officials the scheme would have been aban- 
 doned. It was remarkably successful, however, until 
 now the area under tea includes more than half a million 
 acres, the number of persons employed in the industry 
 exceeds 750,000, the capital invested in plantations is 
 more than $100,000,000 and the approximate average 
 yield is about 200,000,000 pounds. In 1903 159,000,000 
 pounds were exported to England alone, and the total 
 exports were 182,594,000 pounds. The remainder is con- 
 sumed in India, and more than a million pounds annually 
 are purchased for the use of the army. Among other 
 consumers the United States bought 1,080,000 and China 
 1,337,000 pounds. Russia, which is the largest consumer 
 of tea of all the nations, bought 1,625,000 pounds, and 
 this was a considerable increase, showing that India tea is 
 becoming popular there. 
 
 The industry in India and Ceylon, however, is in a 
 flourishing condition, the area under cultivation has ex- 
 panded 85 per cent and the product has increased 167 per 
 cent during the last fifteen years. The cultivation is lim- 
 ited to sections where there is a heavy rainfall and a 
 humid climate, because tea requires water while it is 
 growing as well as while it is being consumed. Where 
 these conditions exist it is a profitable crop. In the 
 valleys of Assam the yield often reaches 450 pounds to the 
 
COTTON, TEA AND OPIUM 473 
 
 acre. The quality of the tea depends upon the manner of 
 cultivation, the character of the soil, the amount of 
 moisture and sunshine and the age of the leaf at the time 
 of picking. Young, tender leaves have the finest flavor, 
 and bring the highest prices, but shrink enormously in 
 curing, and many growers consider it more profitable to 
 leave them until they are well matured. It requires about 
 four pounds of fresh leaves to make one pound of dry 
 leaves, and black tea and green tea are grown from the 
 same bush. If the leaf is completely dried immediately 
 after picking it retains its green color, but if it is allowed 
 to stand and sweat for several hours a kind of fermenta- 
 tion takes place which turns it black. 
 
 There are now about 236,000 acres of coffee orchards 
 in India, about 111,760 persons are employed upon them 
 and the exports will average 27,000,000 pounds a year. 
 The coffee growers of India complain that they cannot 
 compete with Brazil and other Spanish-American coun- 
 tries where overproduction has forced down prices below 
 the margin of profit, but the government is doing as much 
 as it can to encourage and sustain the industry, and be- 
 lieves that they ought at least to grow enough to supply 
 the home market. But comparatively little coffee is used 
 in India. Nearly everybody drinks tea. 
 
 Three million acres of land is devoted to the cultivation 
 of sugar, both cane and beet. During the Cuban revolu- 
 tion the industry secured quite an impetus, but since the 
 restoration of peace and the adjustment of affairs, prices 
 have gone down considerably, and the sugar of India 
 finds itself in direct competition with the bounty-paid 
 product of Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and other 
 European countries. In order to protect its planters the 
 government has imposed countervailing duties against 
 
474 MODERN INDIA 
 
 European sugar, biit there has been no perceptible effect 
 from this poHcy as yet. 
 
 The indigo trade lias been very important, but is also 
 in peril because of the manufacture of chemical dyes in 
 Germany and France. Artificial indigo and other dyes 
 can be produced in a laboratory much cheaper than they 
 can be grown in the fields, and, naturally, people will buy 
 the low-priced article. Twenty years ago India had prac- 
 tically a monopoly of the indigo trade, and 2,000,000 
 acres of land were planted to that product, while the 
 value of the exports often reached $20,000,000. The area 
 and the product have been gradually decreasing, until, in 
 1902, only a little more than 800,000 acres were planted 
 and the exports were valued at less than $7,000,000. 
 
 The quinine industry is also in a deplorable state. 
 About thirty years ago the Indian government sent 
 botanists to South America to collect young cinchona 
 trees. They were introduced into various parts of the 
 empire, where they flourished abundantly until the export 
 of bark ran nearly to 4,000,000 pounds a year, but since 
 1899 there has been a steady fall. Exports have declined, 
 prices have been low, and the government plantations 
 have not paid expenses. Rather than export the bark at 
 a loss the government has manufactured sulphate at its 
 own factories and has furnished it at cost price to the 
 health authorities of the native states, the British prov- 
 inces, the army and the hospitals and dispensaries. 
 
 One of the most interesting places about Calcutta is 
 the Royal Botanical Gardens, where many important ex- 
 periments have been made for the benefit of the agricul- 
 tural industry of India. It is one of the most beautiful 
 and extensive arboreums in the world, and at the same 
 time its economic usefulness has been unsurpassed by any 
 
COTTON, TEA AND OPIUM 475 
 
 similar institution. It was established nearly 150 years 
 ago by Colonel Kyd, an ardent botanist, under the aus- 
 pices of the East India Company, and from its foundation 
 it was intended to be, as it has been, a source of botanical 
 information, a place for botanical experiments, and a 
 garden in which plants of economic value could be cul- 
 tivated and issued to the public for the purpose of intro- 
 ducing new products into India. It has been of incal- 
 culable value in all these particulars, not only by intro- 
 ducing new plants, but by demonstrating which could be 
 grown with profit. 
 
 The garden lies along the bank of the Ganges, about 
 six miles south of the city, and is filled with trees and 
 plants of the rarest varieties and the greatest beauty you 
 can imagine. No other garden will equal it except per- 
 haps that at Colombo. It is 272 acres in extent, has a 
 large number of ponds and lakes, and many fine avenues 
 of palms, mahogany, mangos, tamarinds, plantains and 
 other trees, and its greatest glory is a banyan tree which 
 is claimed to be the largest in the world. 
 
 A banyan, as you know, represents a miniature forest 
 rather than a single tree, because it has branches which 
 grow downward as well as upward, and take root in the 
 ground and grow with great rapidity. This tree is about 
 135 years old. The circumference of its main trunk five 
 and a half feet from the ground is 51 feet. Its topmost 
 leaf is eighty-five feet from the ground. It has 464 aerial 
 roots, as the branches which run down to the ground are 
 called, and the entire tree is 938 feet in circumference. 
 It is large enough to shelter an entire village under its 
 foliage. 
 
 Several other remarkable trees are to be found in that 
 garden. One of them is called "The Crazy Tree," be- 
 
476 MODERN INDIA 
 
 cause about thirty-five different varieties of trees have 
 been grafted upon the same trunk, and, as a consequence, 
 it bears that many different kinds of leaves. Its foHage 
 suggests a crazy quilt. 
 
 Benares is the center of the opium traffic of Iiidia, 
 which, next to the land tax, is the most productive source 
 of revenue to the government. It is a monopoly inher- 
 ited from the Moguls in the middle ages and passed 
 down from them through the East India Company to the 
 present government, and the regulations for the culti- 
 vation, manufacture and sale of the drug have been very 
 little changed for several hundred years. There have 
 been many movements, public, private, national, interna- 
 tional, religious and parliamentary, for its suppression ; 
 there have been many official inquiries and investigations ; 
 volumes have been written setting forth all the moral 
 questions involved, and it is safe to say that every fact 
 and argument on both sides has been laid before the 
 public ; yet it is an astonishing fact that no official com- 
 mission or legally constituted body, not a single English- 
 man who has been personally responsible for the well- 
 being of the people of India or has even had an influential 
 voice in the affairs of the empire or has ever had actual 
 knowledge and practical experience concerning the effects 
 of opium, has ever advocated prohibition either in the cul- 
 tivation of the poppy or in the manufacture of the drug. 
 Many have made suggestions and recommendations for 
 the regulation and restriction of the trafltic, and the exist- 
 ing laws are the result of the experience of centuries. 
 But anti-opium movements have been entirely in the 
 hands of missionaries, religious and moral agitators in 
 England and elsewhere outside of India, and politicians 
 who have denounced the policy of the government to 
 
COTTON, TEA AND OPIUM 477 
 
 obtain votes against the party that happened to be in 
 power. 
 
 This is an extraordinary statement, but it is true. It 
 goes without saying that the use of opium in any form 
 is almost universally considered one of the most danger- 
 ous and destructive of vices, and it is not necessary in 
 this connection to say anything on that side of the con- 
 troversy. It is interesting, however, and important, to 
 know the facts and arguments used by the Indian gov- 
 ernment to justify its toleration of the vice, which, gen- 
 erally speaking, is based upon three propositions : 
 
 1. That the use of opium in moderation is necessary 
 to thousands of honest, hard-working Hindus, and that 
 its habitual consumers are among the most useful, the 
 most vigorous and the most loyal portion of the popula- 
 tion. The Sikhs, who are the flower of the Indian army 
 and the highest type of the native, are habitual opium 
 smokers, and the Rajputs, who are considered the most 
 manly, brave and progressive of the native population, 
 use it almost universally. 
 
 2. That the government cannot afford to lose the 
 revenue and much less afford to undertake the expense 
 and assume the risk of rebellion and disturbances incurred 
 by any attempt at prohibition. 
 
 3. That the export of opium to China and other coun- 
 tries is legitimate commerce. 
 
 The opium belt of India is about 600 miles long and 
 180 miles wide, lying just above a line drawn from 
 Bombay to Calcutta. The total area cultivated with 
 poppies will average 575,000 acres. The crop is grown in 
 a few months in the summer, so that the land can produce 
 another crop of corn or wheat during the rest of the year. 
 About 1,475,000 people are engaged in the cultivation of 
 
478 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the poppy and about 6,000 in tlic manufacture of the 
 drug. The area is regulated by the government com- 
 missioners. The smallest was in 1892, when only 454,243 
 acres were planted, and the maximum was reached in 
 1900, when 627,311 acres were planted. In the latter 
 year the government adopted 625,000 acres as the stand- 
 ard area, and 48,000 chests as the standard quantity to 
 be produced in British India. Hereafter these figures 
 will not be exceeded. The largest amount ever pro- 
 duced was in 1872, when the total quantity manufactured 
 in British India was 61,536 chests of 140 pounds average 
 weight. The lowest amount during the last thirty-five 
 years was in 1894, when only 37,539 chests were pro- 
 duced. In addition to this from 20,000 to 30,000 chests 
 are produced in the native states. 
 
 The annual average value of the crop for the last 
 twenty years has been about $60,000,000 in American 
 money, the annual revenue has been about $24,000,- 
 000, and the officials say that this is a moderate estimate 
 of the sum which the reformers ask the government of 
 India to sacrifice by suppressing the trade. In addition 
 to this the growers receive about $5,500,000 for opium 
 "trash," poppy seeds, oil and other by-products which 
 are perfectly free from opium. The "trash" is made of 
 stalks and leaves and is used at the factories for packing 
 purposes ; the seeds of the poppy are eaten raw and 
 parched, are ground for a condiment in the preparation of 
 food, and oil is produced from them for table, lubricating 
 and illuminating purposes, and for making soaps, paints, 
 pomades and other toilet articles. Oil cakes made from 
 the fiber of the seeds after the oil has been expressed are 
 excellent food for cattle, being rich in nitrogen, and the 
 young seedlings, which are removed at the first weeding 
 
COTTON, TEA AND OPIUM 479 
 
 o£ the crop, are sold in the markets for salad and are very 
 popular with the lower classes. 
 
 No person can cultivate poppies in India without a 
 license from the government, and no person can sell his 
 product to any other than government agents, who ship 
 it to the official factories at Patna and Ghazipur, down 
 the River Ganges a little below Benares. Any violation 
 of the regulations concerning the cultivation of the poppy, 
 the manufacture, transport, possession, import or export, 
 sale or use of opium, is punished by heavy penalties, both 
 fine and imprisonment. The government regulates the 
 extent of cultivation according to the state of the market 
 and the stock of opium on hand. It pays an average of 
 $1 a pound for the raw opium, and wherever necessary 
 the opium commissioners are authorized to advance small 
 sums to cultivators to enable them to pay the expense of 
 the crop. These advances are deducted from the amount 
 due when the opium is delivered. The yield, taking the 
 country together, will average about twelve and a half 
 pounds, or about twelve dollars per acre, not including 
 the by-products. 
 
 The raw opium arrives at the factory in big earthen 
 jars in the form of a paste, each jar containing about 
 873^ pounds. It is carefully tested for quaUty and purity 
 and attempts at adulteration are severely punished. The 
 grower is paid cash by the government agents. The 
 jars, having been emptied into large vats, are carefully 
 scraped and then smashed so as to prevent scavengers 
 from obtaining opium from them, and there is a moun- 
 tain of potsherds on the river bank beside the factory. 
 
 Each vat contains about 20,000 pounds of opium, lying 
 six or eight inches deep, and about the consistency of 
 ordinary paste. Hundreds of coolies are employed to 
 
48o MODERN INDIA 
 
 mix it by trampling it with their bare feet. The work is 
 severe upon the muscles of the legs and the tramplers 
 have to be relieved every half hour. Three gangs are 
 generally kept at v^ork, resting one hour and working 
 half an hour. Ropes are stretched for them to take hold 
 of. After the stuff is thoroughly mixed it is made up 
 into cakes by men and women, who wrap it in what is 
 known as opium "trash," pack it in boxes and seal them 
 hermetically for export. Each cake weighs about ten 
 pounds, is about the size of a croquet ball, and is worth 
 from ten to fifteen dollars, according to its purity under 
 assay. 
 
 The largest part of the product is shipped to China, but 
 a certain number of chests are retained for sale to licensed 
 dealers in different provinces by the excise department. 
 In 1904 there were 8,730 licensed shops, generally dis- 
 tributed throughout the entire empire. But it is claimed 
 by Lord Curzon that the average number of consumers is 
 only about two in every thousand of the population. 
 
 The revenue from licenses is very large. No dealer 
 is permitted to sell more than three tolas (about one and 
 one-eighth ounces) to any person, and no opium can be 
 consumed upon the premises of the dealer. Private 
 smoking clubs and public opium dens were forbidden in 
 1891, but the strict enforcement of the law has been con- 
 sidered inexpedient for many reasons, chief of which is 
 that less opium is consumed when it is smoked in these 
 places than when it is used privately in the form of pills, 
 which are more common in India than elsewhere. Fre- 
 quent investigation has demonstrated that opium con- 
 sumers are more apt to use it to excess when it is taken 
 in private than when it is taken in company, and there 
 are innumerable regulations for the government of 
 
COTTON, TEA AND OPIUM 481 
 
 smoking-rooms and clubs and for the restriction and dis- 
 couragement of the habit. The amount consumed in 
 India is about 871,820 pounds annually. The amount ex- 
 ported will average 9,800,000 pounds. 
 
 Opium intended for export is sold at auction at Cal- 
 cutta at the beginning of every month, and, in order to 
 prevent speculation, the number of chests to be sold each 
 month during the year is announced in January. Con- 
 siderable fluctuation in prices is caused by the demand 
 and the supply on hand in China. The lowest price on 
 record was obtained at the June sale in 1898, when all 
 that was offered went for 929 rupees per chest of 140 
 pounds, while the highest price ever obtained was 1,450 
 rupees per chest. The exports of opium vary consid- 
 erably. The maximum, 86,469 chests, was reached in 
 1891 ; the minimum, 59,632, in 1896. 
 
 The consumption in India during the last few years 
 has apparently decreased. This is attributed to several 
 reasons, inclu(iing increased prices, restrictive measures 
 for the suppression of the vice, the famine, changes in the 
 habits of the people, and smuggling; but it is the con- 
 viction of all the officials concerned in handling opium 
 that its use is not so general as formerly, and its abuse is 
 very small. They claim that it is used chiefly by hard- 
 working people and enables them to resist fatigue and 
 sustain privation, and that the prevailing opinion that 
 opium consumers are all degraded, depraved and miser- 
 able wretches, enfeebled in body and mind, is not true. 
 It is asserted by the inspectors that the greater part of the 
 opium sold in India is used by moderate people, who take 
 their daily dose and are actually benefited rather than in- 
 jured by it. At the same time it is admitted that the drug 
 is abused by many, and that the habit is usually acquired 
 
482 MODERN INDIA 
 
 by people suffering from painful diseases, who begin by 
 taking a little for relief and gradually increase the dose 
 until they cannot live without it. 
 
 In 1895 an unusually active agitation for the suppres- 
 sion of the trade resulted in the appointment of a parlia- 
 mentary commission, of which Lord Brassey was chair- 
 man. They made a thorough investigation, spending 
 several months in India, examining more than seven 
 hundred witnesses, of which 466 were natives, and their 
 conclusions were that it is the abuse and not the use of 
 opium that is harmful, and "that its use among the people 
 of India as a rule is a moderate use, that excess is excep- 
 tional and is condemned by public opinion ; that the use 
 of opium in moderation is not attended by injurious con- 
 sequences, and that no extended physical or moral 
 degradation is caused by the habit." 
 
XXX 
 
 CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 
 
 Calcutta is a modern city compared with the rest of 
 India. It has been built around old Fort William, which 
 was the headquarters of the East India Company 200 
 years ago, and is situated upon the bank of the River 
 Hoogly, one of the many mouths of the Ganges, about 
 ninety miles from the Bay of Bengal. The current is so 
 swift and the channel changes so frequently that the river 
 cannot be navigated at night, nor without a pilot. The 
 native pilots are remarkably skillful navigators, and seem 
 to know by instinct how the shoals shift. For several 
 miles below the city the banks of the river are lined with 
 factories of all kinds, which have added great wealth to 
 the empire. Old Fort William disappeared many years 
 ago, and a new fort was erected a mile or two farther 
 down the river, where it could command the approaches 
 to the city, but that also is now old-fashioned, and could 
 not do much execution if Calcutta were attacked. The 
 fortifications near the mouth of the river are supposed to 
 be quite formidable, but Calcutta is not a citadel, and in 
 case of war must be defended by battle ships and other 
 floating fortresses. It is one of the cities of India which 
 shows a rapid growth of population, the gain during ten 
 years having been 187,178, making the total population, 
 by the census of 1901, 1,026,987. 
 
 The city takes its name from a village which stood in 
 
 483 
 
484 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the neighborhood at the time the East India Company 
 located there. It was famous for a temple erected in honor 
 of Kali, the fearful wife of the god Siva, the most cruel, 
 vindictive and relentless of all the heathen deities. The 
 temple still stands, being more than 400 years old, and 
 "Kali, the Black One," still sits upon her altar, hideous 
 in appearance, gorgon-headed, wearing a necklace of 
 human skulls and dripping with fresh blood from the 
 morning sacrifice of sheep and goats. She brings pesti- 
 lence, famine, war and sorrows and suffering of all kinds, 
 and can only be propitiated by the sacrifice of life. 
 Formerly nothing but human blood would satisfy her, and 
 thousands, some claim tens of thousands, of victims have 
 been slain before her image in that ancient temple. 
 Human offerings were forbidden by the English many 
 years ago, but it is believed that they are occasionally 
 made even now when famine and plague are afflicting the 
 people. During the late famine it is suspected that an 
 appeal for mercy was sealed with the sacrifice of infants. 
 Residents of the neighborhood assert that human heads, 
 dripping with blood and decorated with flowers, have 
 been seen in the temple occasionally since 1870. It is the 
 only notable temple in Calcutta, and is visited by tourists, 
 but they are allowed to go only so far and no farther, 
 for fear that Kali might be provoked by the intrusion. 
 It is a ghastly, filthy, repulsive place, and was formerly 
 the southern headquarters of that organized caste of re- 
 ligious assassins known as Thugs. 
 
 A little beyond the Temple of Kali is the burning ghat 
 of Calcutta. Here the Hindus bring the bodies of their 
 dead and burn them on funeral pyres. The cremations 
 may be witnessed every morning by anyone who cares to 
 take the trouble to drive out there. They take place in 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 485 
 
 an open area surrounded by temples and shrines on one 
 side, and large piles of firewood and the palm cottages of 
 the attendants on the other. The river which flows by 
 the burning ground is covered with all kinds of native 
 craft, carrying on commerce between the city and the 
 country, and the ashes of the dead are cast between them 
 upon the sacred waters from a flight of stone steps which 
 leads to the river's brink. There is no more objection to 
 a stranger attending the burning ceremonies than would 
 be offered to his presence at a funeral in the United 
 States. Indeed, friends who frequently accompany the 
 bodies of the dead feel flattered at the attention and 
 often take bunches of flowers from the bier and present 
 them to bystanders. 
 
 The Black Hole of Calcutta, of which you have read 
 so much, no longer exists. Its former site is now par- 
 tially built over, but Lord Curzon has had it marked, and 
 that portion which is now uncovered he has had paved 
 with marble, so that a visitor can see just how large an 
 area was occupied by it. He has also reproduced after 
 the original plan a monument that was erected to the 
 dead by Governor J. Z. Howell, one of the sufferers. 
 You will remember that the employes of the East India 
 Company, with their families, were residing within the 
 walls of Fort William when an uprising of the natives 
 occurred June 20, 1756. The survivors, 156 in number, 
 were made prisoners and pressed into an apartment 
 eighteen feet long, eighteen feet wide and fourteen feet 
 ten inches high, where they were kept over night. 
 It was a sort of vault in the walls of the fortress, 
 which had been used for storage purposes and at one 
 time for a prison. The company consisted of men, 
 women, children and even infants. Several of them 
 
486 MODERN INDIA 
 
 were crushed to death and trampled during the ef- 
 forts of the native soldiers to crowd them into this 
 place, and all but thirty-three of the 156 died of 
 suffocation. The next morning, when the leader of the 
 mutiny ordered the living prisoners brought before him, 
 the bodies of the dead were cast into a pit outside the 
 walls and allowed to rot there. The monument to which 
 I have alluded stands upon the site of the pit. To pre- 
 serve history Lord Curzon has had a model of the old fort 
 made in wood, and it will be placed in the museum. 
 
 Calcutta is a fine city. The government buildings, the 
 courthouses, the business blocks and residences, the 
 churches and clubs are nearly all of pretentious architec- 
 ture and imposing appearance. Most of the buildings are 
 up to date. The banks of the river are lined for a long 
 distance with mammoth warehouses and the anchorage is 
 crowded with steamers from all parts of the world. 
 There is a regular line between Calcutta and New York, 
 which, I was told, is doing a good business. Beyond the 
 warehouses, the business section and the government 
 buildings, along the bank of the river for several miles, is 
 an open space or common, called the Maidan, the amuse- 
 ment and recreation ground of the public, who show their 
 appreciation by putting it to good use. There are several 
 thousand acres, including the military reservation, bisect- 
 ed with drives and ornamented with monuments and 
 groves of trees. It belongs to the public, is intended for 
 their benefit, and thousands of natives may be found en- 
 joying this privilege night and day. An American circus 
 has its tent pitched in the center opposite a group of 
 hotels ; a little further along is a roller skating rink, which 
 seems to be popular, and scattered here and there, usually 
 beside clumps of shade trees, are cottages erected for the 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 487 
 
 accommodation of golf, tennis, croquet and cricket clubs. 
 On Saturday afternoons and holidays these clubhouses 
 are surrounded by gayly dressed people enjoying an out- 
 ing, and at all times groups of natives may be seen scat- 
 tered from one end of the Maidan to the other, sleeping, 
 visiting, and usually resting in the full glare of the fierce 
 sun. Late in the afternoon, when the heat has moderated, 
 everybody who owns a carriage or a horse or can hire 
 one, comes out for a drive, and along the river bank the 
 roadway is crowded with all kinds of vehicles filled with 
 all sorts of people dressed in every variety of costume 
 worn by the many races that make up the Indian Empire, 
 with a large sprinkling of Europeans. 
 
 The viceroy and Lady Curzon, with their two little 
 girls, come in an old-fashioned barouche, drawn by hand- 
 some English hackneys, with coachman, footman and two 
 postilions, clad in gorgeous red livery, gold sashes and 
 girdles and turbans of white and red. Their carriage is 
 followed by a squad of mounted Sikhs, bronzed faced, 
 bearded giants in scarlet uniforms and big turbans, carry- 
 ing long, old-fashioned spears. Lord Kitchener, the hero 
 of Khartoum and the Boer war, appears in a landau 
 driven by the only white coachman in Calcutta. Lord 
 Kitchener is a bachelor, and his friends say that he has 
 never even thought of love, although he is a handsome 
 man, of many graces, and has contributed to the pleasure 
 of society in both England and India. The diplomatic 
 corps, as the consuls of foreign governments residing in 
 India are called by courtesy — for all of India's relations 
 with other countries must be conducted through the for- 
 eign department at London — are usually in evidence, rid- 
 ing in smart equipages, and they are very hospitable and 
 agreeable people. The United States is represented by 
 
488 MODERN INDIA' 
 
 General Robert F. Patterson, who went to the civil war 
 from Iowa, but has since been a citizen of Memphis. 
 Mrs. Patterson, who belongs to a distinguished southern 
 family, is one of the recognized leaders of society, and is 
 famous for her hospitality and her fine dinners. 
 
 The native princes and other rich Hindus who reside in 
 Calcutta arc quite apt in imitating foreign ways, but, for- 
 tunately, most of them adhere to their national costume, 
 which is much more becoming and graceful than the awk- 
 ward garments we wear. The women of their families 
 are seldom seen. The men wear silks and brocades and 
 jewels, and bring out their children to see the world, but 
 always leave their wives at home. 
 
 There are several sets and castes in the social life — the 
 official set, the military set, the professional people, the 
 mercantile set, and so on — and it is not often that the lines 
 that divide them are broken. During the winter season 
 social life is very gay. The city is filled with visitors from 
 all parts of India, and they spend their money freely, hav- 
 ing a good time. Official cares rest lightly upon the 
 members of the government, with a few exceptions, in- 
 cluding Lord Curzon, who is always at work and never 
 takes a holiday. Dinners, balls, garden parties, races, 
 polo games, teas, picnics and excursions follow one an- 
 other so rapidly that those who indulge in social pleasures 
 have only time enough to keep a record of their engage- 
 ments and to dress. The presence of a large military 
 force is a great advantage, particularly as many of the of- 
 ficers are bachelors, and it is whispered that some of the 
 lovely girls who come out from England to spend a win- 
 ter in India hope to go home to arrange for a wedding. 
 Occasionally matrimonial affairs arc conducted with dis- 
 patch. A young woman who came out on the steamer 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 489 
 
 with us, heart whole and fancy free, with the expectation 
 of spending the entire winter in India, started back to 
 London with a big engagement ring upon her finger with- 
 in four weeks after she landed, and several other young 
 women were quite as fortunate during the same winter, 
 although not so sudden. India is regarded as the most 
 favorable marriage market in the world. 
 
 Calcutta has frequently been called *'the city of stat- 
 ues." I think Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, the poet-vice- 
 roy, gave it that title, and it was well applied. Whichever 
 way you look on the Maidan, bronze figures of former 
 viceroys, statesmen and soldiers appear. Queen Victoria 
 sits in the center, a perfect reproduction in bronze, and 
 around her, with their faces turned toward the govern- 
 ment house, are several of her ablest and most eminent 
 servants. In the center of the Maidan rises a lofty col- 
 umn that looks like a lighthouse. Its awkwardness is in 
 striking contrast to the graceful shafts which Hindu 
 architects have erected in various parts of the empire. It 
 is dedicated to David Ochterlony, a former citizen of Cal- 
 cutta and for fifty years a soldier, and is a token of ap- 
 preciation from the people of the empire. The latest 
 monument is a bronze statue of Lord Roberts. 
 
 Facing the Maidan for a couple of miles is the Chow- 
 ringhee, one of the famous streets of the world, once a 
 row of palatial residences, but now given up almost en- 
 tirely to hotels, clubs and shops. Upon this street lived 
 Warren Hastings in a stone palace, and a little further 
 along, in what is now the Bengal Club, was the home of 
 Thomas Babbington Macaulay during his long residence 
 in India. 
 
 The governor of the province of Bengal lives in a 
 beautiful mansion in the center of a park called "Belve- 
 
490 MODERN INDIA 
 
 dcrc," just outside the city. There are few finer country 
 homes in England, and associated with it are many his- 
 torical events. Upon a grassy ^noll shaded by stately 
 trees occurred the historic duel between Warren Hast- 
 ings, then governor general of India, and Mr. Francis, 
 president of the council of state. They quarreled over an 
 offensive remark which Mr. Francis entered in the min- 
 utes of the council. Hastings offered a challenge and 
 wounded his antagonist, but the ball was extracted and 
 the affair fortunately ended as a comedy rather than a 
 tragedy. 
 
 There are many fine shops in Calcutta, for people 
 throughout all eastern India go there to buy goods just 
 as those in the northwestern part of the United States go 
 to Chicago, and in the eastern states to Boston, Philadel- 
 phia or New York. Of course, the Calcutta shops are not 
 so large and do not carry such extensive stocks as some 
 dealers in our large cities, because they are almost en- 
 tirely dependent upon the foreign population for patron- 
 age, and that is comparatively small. The natives patron- 
 ize merchants of their own race, and do their buying in 
 the bazaars, where the same articles are sold at prices 
 much lower than those asked by the merchants in the for- 
 eign section of the city. This is perfectly natural, for the 
 native dealer has comparatively little rent to pay, the 
 wages of his employes are ridicuously small and it does 
 not cost him very much to live. If a foreigner tries to 
 trade in the native shops he has to pay big prices. For- 
 eigners who live in Calcutta usually send their servants 
 to make purchases, and, although it is customary for the 
 servant to take a little commission or "squeeze" from the 
 seller for himself, the price is much lower than would be 
 paid for the same articles at one of the European shops. 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 491 
 
 Occasionally you see American goods, but not often. 
 We sell India comparatively little merchandise except 
 iron and steel, machinery, agricultural implements, sew- 
 ing machines, typewriters, phonographs and other pat- 
 ented articles. One afternoon four naked Hindus went 
 staggering along the main street in Calcutta carrying an 
 organ made by the Farrand Company of Detroit, which 
 has considerable trade there. American pianos are widely 
 advertised by one of the music dealers. The beef packing 
 houses of Chicago send considerable tinned meat to India, 
 and it is quite popular and useful. Indeed, it would be 
 difficult for the English to get along without it, because 
 native beef is very scarce. It is only served at the hotels 
 one or twice a week. That is due to the fact that cows 
 are sacred and oxen are so valuable for draught pur- 
 poses. Fresh beef comes all the way from Australia in 
 refrigerator ships and is sold at the fancy markets. 
 
 The native bazaars are like those in other Indian cities, 
 although not so interesting. Calcutta has comparatively 
 a small native trade, although it has a million of popula- 
 tion. The shops of Delhi, Lahore, Jeypore, Lucknow, 
 Benares and other cities are much more attractive. In 
 the European quarter are some curio dealers, who stop 
 there for the winter and go to Delhi and Simla for the 
 summer, selHng brocades, embroideries, shawls, wood 
 and ivory carvings and other native art work which are 
 very tempting to tourists. Several dealers in jewels from 
 Delhi and other cities spend the holidays in order to 
 catch the native princes, who are the greatest purchasers 
 of precious stones in the world. Several of them have 
 collections more valuable and extensive than any of the 
 imperial families of Europe. Prices of all curios, em- 
 broideries and objects of art are much higher in Calcutta 
 
492 MODERN INDIA 
 
 than in the cities of northern India, and everybody told 
 us it was the poorest place to buy such things. 
 
 The most imposing building upon the Chowringhee, 
 the principal street, is the Imperial iVIuseum, which was 
 founded nearly a hundred years ago by the Asiatic So- 
 ciety, and was taken over by the government in 1866. It 
 is a splendid structure around a central quadrangle 300 
 feet square with colonnades, fountains, plants and flow- 
 ers. Little effort has been made to obtain contributions 
 from other countries, but no other collection of Indian 
 antiquities, ethnology, archaeology, mineralogy and 
 other natural sciences can compare with it. It is under 
 the special patronage of the viceroy, who takes an active 
 interest in extending its usefulness and increasing its 
 treasures, while Lady Curzon is the patroness of the 
 school of design connected with it. In this school about 
 three hundred young men are studying the industrial arts. 
 Comparatively little attention is given to the fine arts. 
 There are a few native portrait painters, and I have seen 
 some clever water colors from the brushes of natives. 
 But in the industrial arts they excel, and this institute is 
 maintained under government patronage for the purpose 
 of training the eyes and the hands of designers and arti- 
 sans. In the same group of buildings are the geological 
 survey and other scientific bureaus of the government, 
 vv^hich are quite as progressive and learned as our own. 
 A little farther up the famous street are the headquarters 
 of the Asiatic Society, one of the oldest and most enter- 
 prising learned societies in the world, whose journals and 
 proceedings for the last century are a library in them- 
 selves and contain about all that anybody would ever 
 want to know concerning the history, literature, an- 
 tiquities, resources and people of India. Here also is a 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 493 
 
 collection of nearly twenty thousand manuscripts in San- 
 skrit, Persian, Arabic, Hindustani and other oriental 
 languages. 
 
 There is comparatively little poverty in Calcutta, con- 
 sidering the enormous population and the conditions in 
 which they live. There are, however, several hundred 
 thousand people who would starve to death upon their 
 present incomes if they lived in the United States or in any 
 of the European countries, but there it costs so little to 
 sustain life and a penny goes so far that what an Amer- 
 ican working man would call abject destitution is an 
 abundance. Give a Hindu a few farthings for food and 
 a sheet of white cotton for clothing and he will be com- 
 fortable and contented. 
 
 The streets of Calcutta, except in a limited portion of 
 the native section of the city, are wide, well paved, 
 watered and swept. There is an electric tramway system 
 with about twenty miles of track, reaching the principal 
 suburbs, railway stations and business sections, and 
 whether Moline (111.) got it from Calcutta or Calcutta 
 borrowed the idea from Moline, both cities use the same 
 method of laying the dust. The tramway company runs 
 an electric tank car up and down its tracks several times a 
 day, throwing water far enough to cover nearly the entire 
 street. Other streets, where there are no tracks, are 
 sprinkled by coolies, who carry upon their backs pig skins 
 and goat skins filled with water and squirt it upon the 
 ground through one of the legs with a twist of the wrist 
 as ingenious and effective as the method used by Chinese 
 laundrymen in sprinkling clothes. No white man can do 
 either. The Hindu sprinkler is an artist in his line, and 
 therefore to be admired, because everybody who excels is 
 worthy of admiration, no matter what he is doing. The 
 
494 MODERN INDIA 
 
 street sprinklers belong to the very lowest caste ; the same 
 caste as the garbage collectors and the coolies that mend 
 the roads and sweep the sidewalks, but they are stalwart 
 fellows, much superior to the higher class physically, and 
 as they wear very little clothing everybody can see their 
 perfect anatomy and shapely outlines. 
 
 Much of the road mending in India is done by women. 
 They seem to be assigned to all the heavy and laborious 
 jobs. They carry mortar, and bricks and stone where 
 new buildings are being erected ; they lay stone blocks in 
 the pavements, hammer the concrete with heavy iron 
 pestles, and you can frequently see them walking along 
 the wayside with loads of lumber or timber carefully 
 balanced on their heads that would be heavy for a mule 
 or an ox. Frequently they carry babies at the same 
 time ; never in their arms, but swung over their backs or 
 astride their hips. The infant population of India spend 
 the first two or three years of their lives astride some- 
 body's hips. It may be their mother's, or their sister's, 
 or their brother's, but they are always carried that way, 
 and abound so plentifully that there is no danger of race 
 suicide in that empire. 
 
 Next to the Sikh soldier, the nattiest native in India is 
 the postman, who is dressed in a blue uniform with a blue 
 turban of cotton or silk cloth to match, and wears a nickel 
 number over his forehead with the insignia of the postal 
 service, and a girdle with a highly ornamental buckle. 
 The deliveries and collections are much more frequent 
 than with us. It is a mortification to every American who 
 travels abroad to see the superiority of the postal service 
 in other countries. That is about the only feature of civil 
 administration in which the federal government of the 
 United States is inferior, but, compared with India, as 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 495 
 
 well as the European countries, our Postoffice Depart- 
 ment is not up to date. You can mail a letter to any part 
 of Calcutta in the morning and, if your correspondent 
 takes the trouble, he can reach you with a reply before 
 dinner. The rates of postage on local matter and on par- 
 cels are much lower than with us. I can send a package 
 of books or merchandise or anything else weighing less 
 than four pounds from Calcutta to Chicago for less than 
 half the charge that would be required on a similar pack- 
 age from Evanston or Oak Park. 
 
 The best time for a stranger to visit Calcutta is during 
 holiday week, for then the social season is inaugurated by 
 a levee given by the viceroy, a "drawing-room" by the 
 vice-queen and a grand state ball. The annual races are 
 held that week, also, including the great sporting event of 
 the year, which is a contest for a cup offered by the vice- 
 roy, and a military parade and review and various other 
 ceremonies and festivities attract people from every part 
 of the empire. The native princes naturally take this op- 
 portunity to visit the capital and pay their respects to the 
 representative of imperial power, while every English- 
 man in the civil and military service, and those of social 
 or sporting proclivities in private life have their vaca- 
 tions at that time and spend the Christmas and New 
 Year's holidays with Calcutta friends. Moreover, the 
 fact that all these people will be there attracts the tour- 
 ists who happen to be in India at the time, for it gives 
 them a chance to see the most notable and brilliant social 
 features of Indian life. Hence we rushed across the em- 
 pire with everybody else and assisted to increase the 
 crowd and the enthusiasm. Every hotel, boarding-house 
 and club was crowded. Every family had guests. Cots 
 and beds were placed in offices and wherever else they 
 
496 MODERN INDIA 
 
 could be accommodated. Tents were spread on the lawn 
 of the Government House for the benefit of government 
 officials coming in from the provinces, and on the parade 
 grounds at the fort for military visitors. The grounds 
 surrounding the club houses looked like military camps. 
 Sixteen tents were placed upon the roof of the hotel 
 where we were stopping to accommodate the overflow. 
 
 Good hotels are needed everywhere in India, as I have 
 several times suggested, and nowhere so much as in Cal- 
 cutta. The government, the people and all concerned 
 ought to be ashamed of their lack of enterprise in this 
 direction, and everybody admits it without argument. 
 There is not a comfortable hotel in the city, and while it 
 is of course possible for people to survive present condi- 
 tions they are nevertheless a national disgrace. Calcutta 
 is a city of more than a million inhabitants. Among its 
 residents are many millionaires and other wealthy men. 
 It is frequently called "the city of palaces," and many of 
 the private residences in the foreign quarter are imposing 
 and costly. Hence there is no excuse but indifference 
 and lack of public spirit. 
 
 The Government House, which is the residence of the 
 viceroy, is one of the finest palaces in the world, and in 
 architectural beauty, extent and arrangement surpasses 
 many of the royal residences of Europe. None of the 
 many palaces in England and the other European capitals 
 is better adapted for entertaining or has more stately 
 audience chambers, reception rooms, banquet halls and 
 ballrooms. It is truly an imperial residence and was 
 erected more than a hundred years ago by Lord Welles- 
 ley, who had an exalted appreciation of the position he 
 occupied, and transplanted to India the ceremonies, for- 
 malities and etiquette of the British court. The Gov- 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 497 
 
 ernment House stands in the center of a beautiful garden 
 of seven acres and is now completely surrounded and 
 almost hidden by groups of noble trees so that it cannot 
 be photographed. It is an enlarged copy of Kedlestone 
 Hall, Derbyshire, and consists of a central group of state 
 apartments crowned with a dome and connected with 
 four wings by long galleries. 
 
 The throne-room is a splendid apartment and the seat 
 of the mighty is the ancient throne of Tipu, one of the 
 southern maharajas, who, during the latter part of the 
 eighteenth century, gave the British a great deal of 
 trouble until he was deprived of power. The banquet 
 hall, the council chamber, the ballrooms and a series of 
 drawing rooms, nearly all of the same size, are decorated 
 in white and gold, and each is larger than the east room 
 in the White House at Washington. The ceilings are 
 supported by rows of marble columns with gilded cap- 
 itals, and are frescoed by famous artists. The floors are 
 of polished teak wood ; the walls are paneled with brocade 
 and tapestries, and are hung with historical pictures, in- 
 cluding full length portraits of the kings and queens of 
 England, all the viceroys from the time of Warren 
 Hastings, and many of the most famous native rulers of 
 India. In one of the rooms is a collection of marble busts 
 of the Caesars. These, with a portrait of Louis XV. and 
 several elaborate crystal chandeliers, were loot of the war 
 of 1798, when they were captured from a ship which was 
 carrying them as a present from the Emperor of France 
 to the Nyzam of Hyderabad. 
 
 The palace cost $750,000 and the furniture $250,000, 
 more than a hundred years ago, at a time when money 
 would go three times as far as it does to-day. Lord 
 Wellesley had lofty ideas, and when the merchants of the 
 
498 MODERN INDIA 
 
 East India Company expressed their disapproval of this 
 expenditure he told them that India "should be governed 
 from a palace and not from a counting-house, with the 
 ideas of a prince and not those of a retail dealer in muslin 
 and indigo." 
 
 Great stories are told of the receptions, levees and 
 balls that were given in the days of the East India Com- 
 pany, but they could not have been more brilliant than 
 those of to-day. The Government House has never been 
 occupied by a viceroy more capable of assuming the dig- 
 nities and performing the duties of that office than Lord 
 Curzon, and no more beautiful, graceful or popular 
 woman ever sat upon the vice-queen's throne than Mary 
 Leiter Curzon. No period in Indian history has ever 
 been more brilliant, more progressive or more prosperous 
 than the present ; no administration of the government 
 has even given wider satisfaction from any point of view, 
 and certainly the social functions presided over by Lord 
 and Lady Curzon were never surpassed. They live in 
 truly royal style, surrounded by the ceremonies and the 
 pomp that pertain to kings, which is a part of the ad- 
 ministrative policy, because the 300,000,000 people sub- 
 ject to the viceroy's authority are very impressionable, 
 and measure power and sometimes justice and right by 
 appearances. Lord and Lady Curzon never leave the 
 palace without an escort of giant warriors from the Sikh 
 tribe, who wear dazzling uniforms of red, turbans as big 
 as bushel baskets, and sit on their horses like centaurs. 
 They carry long spears and are otherwise armed with 
 native weapons. Within the palace the same formality is 
 preserved, except in the private apartments of the vice- 
 roy, where for certain hours of every day the doors are 
 closed against official cares and responsibilities, and Lord 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 499 
 
 and Lady Curzon can spend a few hours with their chil- 
 dren, like ordinary people. 
 
 The palace is managed by a comptroller general, who 
 has 150 servants under him, and a stable of forty horses, 
 and relieves Lady Curzon from the cares of the house- 
 hold. Lord Curzon is attended by a staff of ministers, 
 secretaries and aids, like a king, and Lady Curzon has 
 her ladies-in-waiting, secretaries and aids, like a queen. 
 
 People who wish to be received at Government House 
 will find three books open before them in the outer hall, 
 in which they are expected to inscribe their names, in- 
 stead of leaving cards. One of these books is for per- 
 manent residents of Calcutta, another for officials, and an- 
 other for transient visitors, who record their names, their 
 home addresses, their occupations, the time they expect to 
 stay in Calcutta, and the place at which they may be 
 stopping. From these books the invitation lists are made 
 out by the proper officials, but in order to secure an invi- 
 tation to Lady Curzon's "drawing-room" a stranger 
 must be presented by some person of importance who is 
 well known at court. At 9 o'clock those who have been 
 so fortunate as to be invited are expected to arrive. They 
 leave their wraps in cloakrooms in the basement, where 
 the ladies are separated from the gentlemen who escort 
 them, because the latter are not formally presented to the 
 vice-queen, but they meet again an hour or so later in 
 the banquet hall after the ceremony is over. 
 
 The ladies pass up two flights of stairs into waiting- 
 rooms in the third story of the palace, pursuing a rather 
 circuitous course over about half the building, guided by 
 velvet barriers and railings, and at each corner stands 
 an aide-de-camp or a gentleman-in-waiting, to answer in- 
 quiries and give directions to strangers. When the 
 
500 MODERN INDIA 
 
 anteroom is at last reached, the ladies await their turns, 
 being admitted to the audience chamber in groups of 
 four. They are given a moment or two to adjust their 
 plumage, and then pass slowly toward the throne, upon 
 which Lady Curzon is seated. The viceroy, in the Uni- 
 form and regalia of a Knight of the Garter, stands under 
 the canopy by her side. There is no crowding and push- 
 ing, such as we see at presidential receptions at Washing- 
 ton and often at royal functions in Europe, but there is 
 an interval of twenty-five or thirty feet between the 
 guests. After entering the room each lady hands a card 
 upon which her name is written to the gentleman-in-wait- 
 ing, and, as she approaches the throne he pronounces it 
 slowly and distinctly. She makes her courtesies to the 
 viceroy and his lady, and then passes on. There is no 
 confusion, no haste, no infringement of dignity, and each 
 woman for the moment has the entire stage to herself. 
 
 On either side of the throne are gathered, standing, 
 many native princes, the higher officers of the govern- 
 ment and the army, the members of the diplomatic corps 
 and other favored persons, with their wives and daugh- 
 ters, and their costumes furnish a brilliant background to 
 the scene. The rest of the great audience chamber, blaz- 
 ing with electric lights, is entirely empty. The viceroy 
 greets every lady with a graceful bow, and Lady Curzon 
 gives her a smile of welcome. The government band is 
 playing all this time in an adjoining room, so that the 
 music can be only faintly heard, and does not interfere 
 with the ceremony, as is so often the case elsewhere. 
 
 Having passed in review, the guests return to the other 
 part of the palace by a different course than that through 
 which they came, and find their escorts awaiting them in 
 the banquet hall. When the last lady has been presented. 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 501 
 
 the viceroy and Lady Curzon lead the way to the banquet 
 hall, where a sumptuous supper is spread, and the gen- 
 tlemen are allowed to share the festivities. The formal- 
 ities are relaxed, and the hosts chat informally with the 
 guests. 
 
 It is a very brilliant scene, quite different from any 
 that may be witnessed elsewhere, particularly because of 
 the gorgeous costumes and the profusion of jewels worn 
 by the native princes. At none of the capitals of Europe 
 can so magnificent a show of jewels be witnessed, but the 
 medals of honor and decorations which adorn the breasts 
 of the bronzed soldiers are more highly prized and usual- 
 ly excite greater admiration, for many of the heroes of 
 the South African war were serving tours of duty in 
 India when we were in Calcutta. 
 
 The viceroy's levee is exclusively for gentlemen. No 
 ladies are expected, and a similar ceremony is carried 
 out. It is intended to ofifer an annual opportunity for the 
 native princes, and officials of the government, officers of 
 the army, the Indian nobility and private citizens of 
 prominence to pay their respects and offer their congrat- 
 ulations to their ruler and the representative of their king, 
 and at 9 o'clock on the evening appointed, two days later 
 than Lady Curzon's reception, every man of distinction 
 in that part of the world appears at the palace and makes 
 his bow to the viceroy as the latter stands under the 
 canopy beside the throne. It might be a somber and 
 stupid proceeding but for the presence of many natives 
 in their dazzling jewels, picturesque turbans and golden 
 brocades, and the large contingent of army officers, with 
 their breasts covered with medals and decorations. 
 
 This reception is followed a few days later by a state 
 ball, which is considered the most brilliant function of 
 
502 MODERN INDIA 
 
 the year in India. Invitations are limited to persons of 
 certain rank who have been formally presented at Gov- 
 ernment House, but Lady Curzon is always on the look- 
 out for her fellow countrymen, and if she learns of their 
 presence in Calcutta invitations are sure to reach them 
 one way or another. She is a woman of many responsi- 
 bilities, and her time and mind are always occupied, but 
 few Americans ever visit Calcutta without having some 
 delightful evidence of her loyalty and thoughtfulness. 
 
 There were many other festivities for celebrating the 
 New Year. All the English and native troops in the 
 vicinity of Calcutta passed in review before the viceroy 
 and Lord Kitchener, who is the commander-in-chief of 
 the forces in India. 
 
 In one of the parks in the city was a native fair and 
 display of art industries, and at the zoological gardens the 
 various societies of the Roman Catholic church in Cal- 
 cutta held a bazaar and raffled off many valuable and 
 worthless articles, sold barrels of tea and tons of cake, 
 and sweetmeats to enormous crowds of natives, who at- 
 tended in their holiday attire. There was a pyramid of 
 gold coins amounting to a thousand dollars, an auto- 
 mobile, a silver service valued at $i,ooo, a grand piano, a 
 carriage and span of ponies, and various other prizes 
 offered in the lotteries, together with dolls and ginger- 
 cake, pipes and cigar cases, slippers, neckties, pincushions 
 and other offerings to the god of chance. Fashionable 
 society was attracted to the fair grounds by a horse and 
 dog show, and various other functions absorbed public at- 
 tention. 
 
 The great sporting event of the year in India is a race 
 for a big silver cup presented by the viceroy and a purse 
 of 20,000 rupees to the winner. We took an interest in 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 503 
 
 the race because Mr. Apgar, an Armenian opium mer- 
 chant, who nominated Great Scott, an Austrian thorough- 
 bred, has a breeding farm and stable of 200 horses, and 
 everything about his place comes from the United States. 
 He uses nothing but American harness and other ac- 
 coutrements, and as a natural and unavoidable conse- 
 quence Great Scott won the cup and the purse very easily, 
 and his fleetness was doubtless due to the fact that he 
 was shod with American shoes. The programme showed 
 that about half the entries were by natives. His Royal 
 Highness Aga Khan, the Nawab of Samillolahs ; Aga 
 Shah ; our old friend of the Chicago exposition, the Sul- 
 tan of Johore, and His Highness Kour Sahib of Patiala, 
 all had horses in the big race. Some of these princes 
 have breeding stables. Others import English, Irish, 
 Australian, American and Arabian thoroughbreds. There 
 was no American horse entered for the viceroy's cup this 
 year, but Kentucky running stock is usually represented. 
 There are two race tracks at Calcutta, one for regular 
 running, the other for steeple chasing, and, as in England 
 and Ireland, the horses run on the turf, and most of the 
 riders are gentlemen. A few professional jockeys repre- 
 sent the stables of breeders who are too old or too fat or 
 too lazy to ride themselves, but it is considered the proper 
 thing for every true sportsman to ride his own horse as 
 long as he is under weight. The tracks are surrounded 
 by lovely landscapes, an easy driving distance from Cal- 
 cutta, and everybody in town was there. The grand 
 stand and the terraces that surround it were crowded 
 with beautifully dressed women, many of them Parsees, 
 in their lovely costumes, and within the course were 
 more than 50,000 natives, wearing every conceivable 
 color, red and yellow predominating, so that when one 
 
504 MODERN INDIA 
 
 looked down upon the inclosurc from a distance it resem- 
 bled a vast flower bed, a field of poppies and roses. The 
 natives take great interest in the races, and, as they are 
 admitted free, every man, woman and child who could 
 leave home was there, and the most of them walked the 
 entire distance from the city. 
 
 The viceroy and vice-queen appear in the official old- 
 fashioned barouche, drawn by four horses, with out- 
 riders, and escorted by a bodyguard of Sikhs in brilliant 
 scarlet uniforms and big turbans of navy blue, with gold 
 trimmings. The viceroy's box is lined and carpeted with 
 scarlet, and easy chairs were placed for his comfort. 
 Distinguished people came up to pay their respects to him 
 and Lady Curzon, and between visits he wandered about 
 the field, shaking hands with acquaintances in a demo- 
 cratic fashion and smiling as if he were having the time 
 of his life. It is not often that the present viceroy takes 
 a holiday. He is the most industrious man in India, and 
 very few of his subjects work as hard as he, but he takes 
 his recreation in the same fashion. He is always full of 
 enthusiasm, and never does anything in a half-hearted 
 way. Lord Kitchener came also, but was compelled to 
 remain in his carriage because of his broken leg. The 
 police found him a good place and he enjoyed it. 
 
 On the lawn behind the grand stand, under the shade 
 of groups of palm trees, tables and chairs were placed, 
 and tea was served between the events. Ladies whose 
 husbands are members of the Jockey Club can engage 
 tables in advance, as most of them do, and issue their in- 
 vitations in advance also, so that Viceroy's day is usually 
 a continuous tea party and a reunion of old friends, for 
 everybody within traveling distance comes to the capital 
 that day. Every woman wore a new gown made ex- 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 505 
 
 pressly for the occasion. Most of them were of white or 
 of dainty colors, but they did not compare in beauty or 
 elegance with the brocades and embroidered silks worn 
 by bare-legged natives. Half the Hindu gentlemen pres- 
 ent had priceless camel's hair and Cashmere shawls 
 thrown over their shoulders — most of them heirlooms, 
 for, according to the popular impression, modern shawls 
 do not compare in quality with the old ones. Under the 
 shawls they wear long coats, reaching to their heels like 
 ulsters, of lovely figured silk or brocade of brilliant col- 
 ors. Some of them are finished with exquisite embroid- 
 ery. No Hindu women were present, only Parsees. They 
 never appear in public, and allow their husbands to wear 
 all of the fine fabrics and jewels. With shawls wrapped 
 around them like Roman togas, the Hindus are the most 
 dignified and stately human spectacles you can imagine, 
 but when they put on European garments or a mixture 
 of native and foreign dress they are positively ridiculous, 
 and do violence to every rule of art and law of taste. 
 Usually when an oriental — for it is equally true of China, 
 Japan and Turkey — adopts European dress he selects the 
 same colors he would wear in his own, and he looks like a 
 freak, as you can imagine, in a pair of green trousers, a 
 crimson waistcoat, a purple tie, a blue negligee shirt and 
 a plaid jacket. 
 
 If you want to see a display of fine raiment and 
 precious stones you must attend an official function in 
 India, a reception by Lord or Lady Curzon, for in the 
 number, size and value of their jewels the Indian princes 
 surpass the sovereigns of Europe. One of the rajahs has 
 the finest collection of rubies in the world, purchased 
 from time to time by his ancestors for several genera- 
 tions, most of them in Burma, where the most valuable 
 
5o6 MODERN INDIA 
 
 rubies have been found. Another has a collection of 
 pearls, accumulated in the same way. They represent an 
 investment of millions of dollars, and include the largest 
 and finest examples in the world. When he wears them 
 all, as he sometimes does, on great occasions, his front 
 from his neck to his waist is covered with pearls netted 
 like a chain armor. His turban is a cataract of pearls on 
 all sides, and upon his left shoulder is a knot as large as 
 your two hands, from which depends a braided rope of 
 four strands, reaching to his knee, and every pearl is as 
 large as a grape. You can appreciate the size and value 
 of his collection when I tell you that all of the pearls 
 owned by the ex-Empress Eugenie are worn in his tur- 
 ban, and do not represent ten per cent of the collection. 
 Other rajahs are famous for diamonds, or emeralds, or 
 other jewels. There seems to be a good deal of rivalry 
 among them as to which shall make the greatest display. 
 But from what people tell me I should say that the Nizam 
 of Haidarabad could furnish the largest stock if these 
 estimable gentlemen were ever compelled to go into the 
 jewelry business. We were particularly interested in him 
 because he outranks all the other native princes, and is 
 the most important as well as the most gorgeous in the 
 array. His dominions, which he has inherited from a 
 long line of ancestors — I believe he traces his ancestry 
 back to the gods — include the ancient City of Golconda, 
 whose name for centuries was a synonym for riches and 
 splendors. In ancient times it was the greatest diamond 
 market in the world. It was the capital of the large and 
 powerful kingdom of the Deccan, and embraced all of 
 southern India, but is now in ruins. Its grandeur began 
 to decay when the kingdom was conquered by the Moguls 
 in 1587 and annexed to their empire, and to-day the 
 
CALCUTTA, THE CAPITAL OF INDIA 507 
 
 crumbling walls and abandoned palaces are almost en- 
 tirely deserted. Even the tombs of the ancient kings, a 
 row of vast and splendid mausoleums, which cost millions 
 upon millions of dollars, and for architecture and decora- 
 tion and costliness have been surpassed only by those of 
 the Moguls, are being allowed to decay while the ruling 
 descendant of the men who sleep there spends his income 
 for diamonds. 
 
 The magnificence and extravagance of these princes are 
 the theme of poems and legends. There is a large book 
 in Persian filled with elaborate and graphic descriptions 
 of the functions and ceremonies that attend the reception 
 of an envoy from Shah Abbas, King of Persia, who vis- 
 ited the court of Golconda in 1503. Among other gifts 
 brought by him from his royal master was a crown of 
 rubies which still remains in the family, although many 
 people think the original stones have been removed and 
 imitations substituted in order that the nizam may enjoy 
 the glory of wearing them. When his ambassador went 
 back to Persia he was accompanied by a large military 
 escort guarding a caravan of 2,400 camels laden with 
 gifts from the nizam to his royal master. 
 
 The present capital of the province, the city of Haid- 
 arabad, was founded in 1589 by a gentleman named 
 Kutab Shah Mohammed Kuli, who afterward removed 
 his household there on account of a lack of water and a 
 malarial atmosphere at Golconda. He called the city in 
 honor of his favorite concubine. The name means "the 
 city of Haidar." The province includes about 80,000 
 square miles of territory, and has a population of 11,- 
 141,946, of whom only 10 per cent are Moslems, although 
 the ruling family have always professed that faith. 
 
 The present nizam is Mir Mahbub Ali, who was born 
 
5o8 MODERN INDIA 
 
 in 1866, was partially educated in England and is very 
 popular with all classes of people — particularly with 
 those who profit by his extravagance. The revenues of 
 the state arc about $20,000,000 a year, and the people are 
 very much overtaxed. The nizani's taste for splendor 
 and his desire to outdo all the other native princes in dis- 
 play have caused the government of India considerable 
 anxiety, and the British resident at his capital, whose 
 duty is to keep him straight, enjoys no sinecure. 
 
 Haidarabad is one of the oldest cities in India, with a 
 population of 355,000, inclosed by a strong wall six miles 
 in circumference. The city stands in the midst of wild 
 and rocky scenery and is one of the most interesting 
 places in India, because the nizam is fond of motion and 
 music and color, and has surrounded himself with a large 
 retinue of congenial spirits, who live at his expense and 
 pay their board by amusing him. As the most important 
 Moslem potentate except the Sultan of Turkey, he has 
 attracted to his service Mohammedans from every part 
 of the earth, who go about wearing their distinctive na- 
 tional costumes and armed with quaint weapons — Turks, 
 Arabs, Moors, Afghans, Persians, Rajputs, Sikhs, Mar- 
 athas, Pathans and representatives of all the other races 
 that confess Islam. His palaces are enormous and are 
 filled with these retainers, said to number 7,000 of all 
 ranks and races, and the courtyards are full of elephants, 
 camels, horses, mounted escorts and liveried servants. It 
 reminds one of the ancient East, a gorgeous page out of 
 the Arabian Nights. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abu, Mount 195 
 Afghanistan 340 
 Afridis, the tribe of 2)2)7 
 Agra, fortress of 217 
 
 religious celebration at 
 
 "5 
 Agriculture 65, 314 
 Ahmedabad, city of 156 
 Ajmere, city of 198 
 Akbar the Great 218, 242 
 
 tomb of 229 
 Allahabad, city of 397 
 Aligarh, city of 372 
 Amber, city of 184 
 Ameer of Afghanistan 340 
 Americans in India 42 
 American trade in India 491 
 Amritsar, city of 300 
 Architecture, Mogul 217 
 
 Ahmedabad 162 
 of India 242 
 Area of India 62 
 Art schools 402, 492 
 Army, the 35 1 
 
 Banyan trees 475 
 Baluchistan 346 
 Banks of India 75 
 Barbers 441 
 Barbar, the Emperor 
 Baroda, state of 83 
 Bazaars, native 491 
 
 Bazaars of Delhi 252 
 
 Bearers, Indian 47 
 
 Benares, city of 428 
 
 Betel chewing 68 
 
 Bibles in India 63, 459 
 
 Bird training 192 
 
 Birth rate 71 
 
 Black Hole of Calcutta 485 
 
 Body guard. Lord Curzon's 135 
 
 Bombay, death rate in 106 
 city of 27 
 residences of 27 
 ghat-burning at 104 
 Improvement Trust 
 
 39 
 Monkey temple at 104 
 old city of 38 
 public buildings of 28 
 railway station at 30 
 statues in 32 
 street-cars of 41 
 University of 30 
 
 Bordeaux, Austin de 263 
 
 Botanical Gardens 474 
 
 Brahmins, the 385, 407 
 
 Brahminism 106, 431 
 
 Brahmin priests 431 
 
 Buddhism 109, 449 
 
 Burning bodies 104, 447 
 
 Cadet corps 125 
 Calcutta, city of 483 
 
 509 
 
5"^ 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Calcutta, residences of 489 
 Black Hole of 485 
 
 Canteen, the army 357 
 
 Caravans 306, 338 
 
 Cashmere, province of 307 
 shawls 225 
 
 Caste 174, 382 
 
 Castle in Bombay 19 
 
 Catholic missions, Roman 60 
 
 Cave temples 54 
 
 Cawnpore, city of 373, 379 
 
 Census of India 65 
 
 Christian population 460 
 
 Cities of India 65 
 
 Civil service, Indian 140 
 
 Coal mining 80 
 
 Coffee planting 473 
 
 College, the INIoslem 372 
 at Jeypore 178 
 
 Colleges 133, 200, 398 
 the Phipps 324 
 
 Contortionists 283 
 
 Costumes, Hindu 23, 505 
 
 Cotton trade 467 
 
 Council of India 122 
 
 Courts 140 
 
 Crime 288, 290, 291 
 
 Criminals, professional 288 
 
 Crops 78 
 
 value of 331 
 
 Curzon, Lord 121, 128, 264, 399, 
 424, 498 
 Lady 257, 498 
 
 Customs, religious 438 
 
 social 35, 499, 349 
 
 Customs-house at Bombay 21 
 
 Cutch-Behar, Maharaja of 409 
 
 Dak bungalows 366 
 
 Darjeeling, city of 413 
 Dead, burning the 447 
 Death rate 70 
 
 at Bombay 106 
 Deccan, the 64 
 Delhi, city of 211, 250 
 
 palaces of 260 
 
 ancient 268 
 
 tombs of 273 
 Docks at Bombay 20, 22 
 Drawing room. Lady Curzon's 
 
 499 
 Durbar, the 264 
 
 East India Company 120 
 Education 397, 462 
 Elephanta Island 54 
 Elephant riding 182 
 Elephants working 380 
 Ellora, cave temples at 56 
 Embroideries, Indian 254 
 Emigration 71 
 Epidemics 77 
 Etiquette in Calcutta 499 
 
 Fakirs, Hindu 2'/7 
 Famines 69, 312 
 Farming 78, 314 
 Fattehpur-Sikri, city of 242 
 Frontier Question 336 
 Funeral customs loi 
 
 Ganges River 369, 430 
 
 Gaya, town of 450 
 
 Ghats, burning 104 
 
 Girls, English and American 
 
 12 
 Goa, colony of 60 
 Gods, Hindu 451 
 
INDEX 
 
 511 
 
 Government house at Calcutta 
 496 
 of India 120 
 Governor of Bombay 33 
 Guilds, Indian 161 
 Gurkas, the 423 
 
 Haiderabad, Nizam of 506 
 Hall of the Winds, Jeypore 175 
 Himalayas, the 413 
 Hodson, Colonel 214 
 Holiday week in Calcutta 495 
 Hotels of India 48, 496 
 
 of Delhi 251 
 
 in Muttra 366 
 Hospital 393 
 Humayon, tomb of 214 
 Hume, Rev. R. A. 460 
 Hypnotism, Hindu 282 
 
 Idols 455 
 
 Illiteracy 339 
 
 Income tax 75 
 
 Indian Ocean, temperature of 
 
 Indigo 474 
 Infanticide 200, 293 
 Irrigation in India 327 
 
 Jains, religious sect of iii, 158, 
 400 
 temples of the 195 
 Jeejeebhoy, Sir Jamsetjed 17 
 Jehanghir, the Mogul 226 
 Jewels 81, 84, 167, 220, 259, 499, 
 
 505 
 
 Jewelry 25, 39 
 Jeypore, city of 164, 169 
 Maharaja of 172 
 
 Jodpore 165 
 Juggernaut, the 370 
 
 Khyber Pass 336 
 Kipling, Rudyard 305 
 Kitchener, Lord 355, 487 
 Kutab Minar, the 271 
 
 Laboring classes 77 
 Lahore, city of 302 
 Lamington, Lord 15 
 Land laws 78 
 Languages of India 63 
 Levees, the viceroy's 498 
 Literature, Hindu 403 
 Lucknow, city of 376 
 
 Magicians, religious 280 
 Manufacturing 75, 160, 307, 437, 
 
 468 
 Mark Twain, anecdote of 43 
 Marriage customs 83, 394 
 Mayo College 200 
 Mendicants, religious 277 
 Minerals 81 
 Miriam, the Christian princess 
 
 229 
 Missions, American 287, 305, 
 
 340, 371, 457 
 Mizra, Gheas Bey 225 
 Mogul Empire 202 
 Moguls, the last of the 211 
 Mohammedans 112, 400, 404 
 Mohammedan College 372 
 Monkey temple at Bombay 104 
 Monsoons 313 
 Mortality from snake and tiger 
 
 bites 186 
 Mosques in Delhi 270 
 Mountains of India 416 
 
512 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Museum, the imperial 492 
 Mutiny, the 211, zy^ 
 Muttra, city of 366 
 
 Native princes 505 
 
 Nautch dancers 284 
 
 Nepal, state of 422 
 
 New Year Day in Calcutta 502 
 
 Nomenclature in India 164 
 
 Nur Jehan 225 
 
 Occupations 66 
 
 Officials, English and native 140 
 
 Opium trade 476 
 
 Palace, the viceroy's 495, 496 
 Palaces, the ]\Iogul 218, 259 
 Parsees, the 16, 99, 400, 461, 505 
 Patterson, Consul-general 488 
 Peacock throne 262 
 Pearl carpet 84 
 Pearl Mosque 220 
 Peerbhoy, Adamjee 14 
 Peshawar, city of 336 
 Petit family of Bombay 18 
 Phipps, Henry 191, 324 
 Pilgrims 442 
 Police 354 
 Politicians 138 
 Population of Bombay 20 
 
 of India 62 
 
 foreign 64 
 Portuguese colony 60 
 Postal service 155, 495 
 Poverty 70 
 
 Princes, native 124, 505 
 Progress of India 74 
 Prosperity of India 74 
 P. and O. Steamers 13 
 
 Quinine crop 474 
 
 Racing horses 495 
 
 in Calcutta 503 
 Railways 144, 368 
 Railway travel in India 46 
 
 stations 366 
 
 station at Bombay 30 
 Rainfall 313 
 Rajputs, the 129, 194 
 Rajputana, province of 195 
 Ramadan, feast of 115 
 Ranjitsinhji, Prince 15 
 Rarjumund Banu 232 
 Readymoney, Sir Jehanghir r6 
 Red Sea, temperature of 13 
 Reforms in India 404 
 Religions of India 64, 99, 438, 
 
 458, 484 
 Residences of Bombay 27 
 Rice eating 68 
 Road, Great Trunk 268 
 Roberts, Lord 355 
 Ruins of Delhi 268 
 Rulers, native 124 
 Russians, fear of 336 
 policy of 424 
 
 Salaries of officials 123 
 
 Schools, native 133, 399, 462 
 
 Servants, native 46 
 
 Shah Jehan 208, 228 
 
 Shopping in India 49O 
 
 Sights of Bombay 23 
 
 Sikhs, the 114, 300 
 
 Simla, summer capital at 295 
 
 Siva, the demon god 55 
 
 Sleeping cars 145 
 
 Snakes 186 
 
 Snake charmers 282 
 
INDEX 
 
 513 
 
 Social customs of India 34, 499 
 Society in India 488 
 Stables at Jeypore 177 
 Starvation 70, 316 
 Steamers, P. and O. 13 
 Steamship passage to India 11 
 Street sprinkling 493 
 Sugar planting 473 
 Superstitions 380, 454 
 "Suttee" forbidden 393 
 
 Taj Mahal 232 
 Tamerlane 202 
 Tata, J. N. 19, 54, 410 
 Taxes 79 
 
 Tea-planting 415, 470 
 Telegraphs and telephones 154 
 Temperance in the army 357 
 Temples 484 
 
 of Delhi 270 
 of Ahmedabad 159 
 Tigers 186, 189 
 Tiger catching 189 
 Timour 202 
 
 Thibet, invasion of 413, 420 
 Thugs 277, 289 
 
 founder of the 287 
 Throne, the Peacock 262 
 Tomb of Akbar 229 
 Tombs of Delhi 273 
 Towers of Silence 100 
 
 Travellers, English and Amer- 
 ican 12 * 
 
 Trust of Bombay, the Improve- 
 ment 39 
 
 Universities 138, 398 
 University of Bombay 30 
 Tata, the 411 
 
 Viceroy, authority of 120 
 receptions of 499 
 Voyage to India 11 
 
 Wages 48, 469 
 
 Water, impurities of the 369 
 
 supply 326 
 Wedding customs 83 
 Wheat grov^ring 79 
 Widows in India 393 
 Widow burning 393 
 Winter in India 307 
 Women of India 225, 389, 404, 
 459, 505 
 of Bombay 24 
 English and American 
 12 
 
 Xavier, St. Francis 60 
 
 Younghusband, Colonel 420 
 
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