f™ 8 V 4!i*fe tEG( ;np YOUNG INDIA A SERIES OF LETTERS WRITTEN FOR THE PALL MALL GAZETTE DURING A POLITICAL TOUR IN INDIA IN THE WINTER OF 1890-91 j^$7&^±T7. EBMAKULUM BY W. S. C^INE DELEGATE FOR SHOLAPUR TO THE SIXTH INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS WITH 64 ILLUSTRATIONS BY R. IV. ALLAN, R.W.S., JOHN REDDER & H. S. DALE ' The people of Lndia are quite capable of administering their own affairs. . . . The village communities, each of which is a little republic, are the most abiding of Indian institutions. Holding the position we do in India, every view of duty and policy should induce us to leave as much as possible of the business of the country to be do?ie by the people'— Sir John Lawrence, August 31, 1864 'PALL MALL GAZETTE' OFFICE 2 NORTHUMBERLAND STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C. 1891 MR. R. W. ALLAN AND HIS SKETCHING-CART. PREFACE. HE main object I have had in view in writing these letters has been to try to interest the political public at home in our great dependency of India, and to induce those who have time and means at their disposal to devote some of their leisure or holiday time to spend a winter there. It will be found on perusal that the greater portion of these letters are taken up in describing or discussing the incidents connected with the Indian National Congress, now the recognised mouth-piece of the political aspirations of Educated India, in which may be included the remarkable development of the Temperance Reformation, which has been so conspicuous a feature of the Congress movement. The illustrations which accompany the letterpress have been mostly drawn by my friend, Mr. Robert W. Allan, R.W.S., a few others having been contributed by the kind permission of Messrs. G. Routledge & Sons, Limited, the publishers of my recent book " Picturesque India." The letters were written for the Pall Mall Gazette, but they have appeared simultaneously in a considerable number of the leading daily journals of the country. MR . R w ALLAN , I have made no alteration or amendments to my letters, preferring to leave them as they came off my pen under the impressions of the moment. MR. W. S. CAINE. , From a Photograph by Messrs. Elliott & Fry, 35 Baker Street, W.) YOUNG INDIA. CHAPTER I. A Journey with an Object.— The Rise and Groivth of the " P. & 0." — Good-bye at Gfavesend. — The Leprosy Commission. — A Waterspout. jjjOU have been kind enough to ask me to contribute to your columns a few letters on Indian subjects, as the result of my observations during my third visit to our vast Indian Empire, and also to arrange that my travelling companion, Mr. Robt. W. Allan, R.W.S., should add a few illustrations. As a friend of India, and a warm sympathiser with the aspirations of her cultured people, I look upon the request from so influential a journal as very gratifying evidence of the increasing interest which is being aroused at home in all Indian subjects, and I gladly avail myself of such space as you place at my disposal. My own object in these repeated visits to India is distinctly political. I am trying to know something of the many social and political problems pressing for solution, and which, in the absence of all representative legislation and administration, can only find expression in the native press, and in the discussions of that remarkable assembly of educated Indians, the Indian National Congress, which meets annually — this year at Calcutta, where I shall be present as a delegate from Sholapur, a populous city in the Deccan. While I hope to amuse your readers with descriptions of many of the incidents of Indian travel, my main object will be to bring home to their minds the fact that, in spite of the horrid memories of the Mutiny, Indian loyalty to Britain and to British over-rule is now beyond all question ; that the two countries are now so bound together by ties of self-interest that severance has become impossible, and is nowhere desired ; that the right of free speech and a free press, long since conceded, the wide extension of local self-government during recent years, the proved capacity of Indians to occupy the highest administrative and judicial posts, and, above all, the development of higher education, is rapidly fitting large numbers of the Indian people for the enjoyment of a carefully-guarded representative Government, both provincial and imperial. I will also try to show how much, or rather how little, of Western methods of government need be grafted on existing institutions to give India a representative system in accordance with the modest demands of Congress. With regard to social questions : opium, excise, missions, sanitary reform, factory legis- lation, and the condition of Indian women, are all subjects upon which deep interest is being felt at home. If I can in any way awaken the attention of men of leisure and travel to a country which presents, more than any other, attractions alike to the politician, the social reformer, the lover of nature and the picturesque, the archaeologist, the botanist, the sports- man, the invalid, and the Jingo, I shall be amply rewarded. The passenger traffic to India is practically a monopoly of that great shipping company which for so many years has led the van of British commerce, the "P. and O.," which celebrated its jubilee in 1887 by laying down the keels of ten new steamers with an aggregate tonnage of 50,000 tons and 48,000 horse power. A study of the past and YOUNG INDIA. present steam fleet of this famous company is in itself a 'complete history of naval architecture and the progress of marine engineering from its infancy. The first P. and O. steamer was the William 'Fawceti^ an archaic paddle-boat of 206 tons and 60-horse power. In 1847, the tenth year of the company's existence, they launched the Indus, a paddle- boat of 1,782 tons ; in 1857 the screw was in full operation, and the vessel of the year was the Nemesis, 2,018 tons ; 1867 saw the Sumatra, 2,488 tons ; 1877, the Kaiser-i-Hind, 4,023 tons ; and 18S7, the jubilee year of the company, produced the six steamers of which the Arcadia is the type, 6,362 tons, 7,000-horse power, 16 knots speed, reducing the distance from London to Bombay to 15 days, as compared with 36 days forty years ago. The fleet of the company in 1S45 consisted of 14 ships, with a gross tonnage of 14,423 tons; to-day it consists of 54 ships, 210,000 tons— an apt and exact illustration of the proportionate growth of British trade and commerce with the world during forty years of free trade. The Suthj, on board of which I have had such a pleasant passage, was built in 1882 at Barrow ; she is getting old-fashioned beside the great Atlantic greyhounds, or the recent additions to her own fleet, and there is no need to enter upon any description of her. I like the older ships better than the new ; they are like quiet,, well-appointed country hotels compared with the Grand Hotel at Brighton in race week. We have 148 passengers, with 224 officers, crew, and stewards to look after them. P. and O. officers put on a good deal of "side," claiming, and with some justification, to be the aristocracy of The Mercantile Marine. Without doubt our commander, Captain Worcester. R.N.R., standing at the head of his gangway in his best uniform, looks every inch the officer and seaman. He is one of the most popular captains in the service, and many of the passengers, Lady Lansdowne included, are on board because they have sailed with him before. He is, however, but a type of the whole service. He was educated for the Navy, at Stubbington House, but entered the Merchant Service in 1866 as a midshipman in the training-ship of the Peninsular and Oriental— a splendid school of seamanship which the company have, in my opinion, foolishly given up. He got his first command in 1884, at thirty-three years of age, and in 18S5 joined the Royal Naval Reserve. He served on board- the flagship in the recent autumn manoeuvres. jie. enjoys the almost unique distinction of never having received a single complaint from his passengers since he got his 1 ommand. His ship was selected to take out Lord Lansdowne and his suite when he be- came Viceroy, of India. 1 sometimes think it would be well if the Indian Government would in some appropriate way recognise the services of leading Peninsular and Oriental captains. They are made responsible for the regular delivery of mails, they bring out Royalty, Viceroys, and Governors, soldiers and Civil servants, and are surely as deserving of CLE. as the managing director of an Indian brewery, whose only services to the Empire co nsists in the production of Tommy Atkins's beer. But I must come back to the Sutlej. There are few sadder sights than the departure of a great Indian mail steamer from Gravesend. It emphasizes like nothing else the terrible strain on the family life of the Anglo-Indian. As the tug sways from the side of the noble Sutlej the last link is snapped for CAPTAIN WORCESTER. m \\\ °°° 357>o°° 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887. 1888. It is, however, intended to assimilate their system to that of Bombay, in which case no doubt the consumption will double itself by 1900. On Saturday I went with a Brahman friend to visit Conjeveram, one of the three most sacred cities in India, where there are two of the most notable of the great Dravidian temples built by the Vijayanagar kings in the early years of the sixteenth century. I was received with full temple honours. Three or four of the temple trustees met me at the station, and after partaking of a Hindu breakfast of vegetables and sweets, which, of course* YOUNG INDIA. 21 I had to eat alone, we drove to the temple. We were met at the gate by the priest in charge, the sacred elephant, which is attached to all South Indian temples, a drummer on a piebald horse, a band of silver flutes and tom-toms, and the god Siva himself — a noble spectacle in silver, seated on a silver shrine, borne aloft by twenty stalwart acolytes. My friends and I were then decorated with the usual flower garlands, and solemnly marched round the temple. I was not admitted to the house of the god himself, as I should have profaned it, but the head priest brought out and spread upon the steps the regalia of the god, of massive gold encrusted with superb precious stones, the gifts of pious Hindus, over a period of 300 years. . There were many beautiful specimens of old Indian jewellery, never to be sesn except at these temples. It is valued |t ,£40,000. ffi r fifc ilii 1 . ! ? \M\ if Ml : i if •A' A TEMPLE ASCETIC. CHAPTER IV. A days political touring in India. — " Young India " and the Caste system. — T7ie Congress Brahman. |URING the last month or two the newspapers both at home and in India who make it their business to take up a hostile position to the Congress move- ment have been saying that the movement is getting languid, that funds are falling off, and that the sixth Indian National Congress will probably be the last. For some reason I cannot explain they have insisted that the Madras Presidency furnishes the most ample proof of this. I wish they had been travelling with me through the Madras Presidency for the last fortnight, and seen the magnificent meetings which have been held at Bellary, Cuddapah, Conjeveram, Salem, Coimbatore, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura, and Kumbaconam, towns of from 30,000 to 100,000 popula- tion, to elect delegates to go to Calcutta. It is expected that from 100 to [50 persons will go, at their own cost, from the Madras' Presidency, 'as elected representatives to the Calcutta Congress. These various cities have vied with one another to give me such a welcome as shall, at any rate, dispel any illusion in my mind as to the lukewarmness of Southern India. I visit these towns in a dual capacity — as the secretary of the Anglo- Indian Temperance Association on a tour of inspection of its Indian branches, and as a member of the Committee of the Indian Political Agency in London, which is practically the British Branch of the Congress movement. Let me describe a day's experience in one of these places. We arrived at Tanjore at 4.40 a.m., in a profound slumber, from which we were awakened by a Congress brass band playing " God save the Queen." I wish to say here that one of the strongest proofs of the loyalty of the Congress is that these bands can play no other tune but this with the smallest approach to harmony. We descended from the carriage into a crowd of 200 Indian gentle- men who had come to welcome Mr. R. W. Allan and myself to Tanjore. We were promptly " garlanded " with a thick necklace of flowers, and escorted to a carriage and pair, placed at our absolute disposal as long as we stay. In this we were driven to a handsome bungalow, fitted up for our reception, for of course no Indian can receive us into his own house, and their boundless hospitality will not tolerate a " travellers' bungalow." Here we found an early breakfast of tea, toast, eggs, and fruit. Refreshed by a bath, we went to a meeting of students convened by our branch society in the S.P.G. College, where 800 young fellows were waiting to greet us, with the principal of the college, Mr. Isaac Daniel, in the chair. The inevitable garlands were forthcoming, and I made my speech, after which a students' temperance society is formed, and members enrolled. We were then taken to see the great temple, the finest in all India, the only important Dravidian temple which was conceived as a whole on a well- defined plan persevered in without alteration to its completion. It was erected during the early part of the fourteenth century. It is in perfect preservation. Its great pagoda, rising 208 ft. into the air, from a base of 96 ft. square, is crowned with a huge circular solid dome, a mon olith of granite, which was rolled by forced labour up an inclined plane five miles long, built for the purpose. Facing the pagoda is the famous stone bull, cut from a single block of syenite. This mass of rock must have been at least 20 ft. long, 14 ft. wide, YOUNG INDIA. 23 and 9 ft. thick when cut from the quarry, and was brought a distance of 400 miles. The main gateway of the temple is very handsome, and was completed in a.d. 1330. We returned from the temple to our bungalow, to a breakfast sent to us by the Princess of Tanjore and the other ladies of the palace, consisting of forty dishes ! Our dinner in the evening was sent in by Rajah Sakaram Sahib ; it was what is called a " Durbar " dinner, of eighty-three dishes, representing the culinary art of three communities, the Brahman, Mahratta, and Mussulman. These meals were brought in large flat baskets, served in the most dainty plates and dishes made from bright green plantain leaves. I once heard two Yankee children at the Grand Hotel, Interlaken, declare their intention, as they sat down to dinner, of "walking straight throjughjhe bilLof .fejcgi" which they did bravely. Even they would have had their work cut out for them with a Tanjore " Durbar " dinner. However, we selected half a dozen of the most appetising dishes, and never dined better. THE MAIN GATEWAY, TANJORE TEMPLE. In the afternoon we were invited to visit the vast palace of the Nayakar kings, inhabited by their successors, now pensioners of the British Government. There are'no less than ten wives and twenty-two left-handed wives of the late Maharajah still living in the palace, with their families, and it is said there are over 2,000 persons of all sorts living within the precincts. The Maharajah is a young lad who has been adopted by the ten widows, but whose claim to the title is in abeyance, and forms one__of_the endless Indian political grievances on which English barristers and Indiaji_V^ls_^likegrow fat. I visit few towns in India^without some poor creature who hasexhausted his resources on a hopeless and ancient claim upon the Government coming to beg me to bring his cause " before Parliament." The uncle of a native prince, who thinks he has not had his fair share of plunder during his nephew's minority, came to see me the other day. He had driven thirty-six miles in a country bullock cart, accompanied by 24 YOUXG INDIA. retainers in green silk and gold lace, to bring me an elaborate statement of his claim upon the Madras Government, covering a period of about thirty-six years, all in print for my benefit. With great difficulty I convinced the good old gentleman that I was nobody at all, only a teetotal Congressman on the tramp, and that Government paid no heed to ex-M.P.'s. He then implored me, with tears in his eyes, to lay his case before " Lord Bradlaugh." This I felt able to promise, and he left me, comforted. From the palace we drove to the fort, now dismantled, though the old ramparts are still standing, surrounded by a moat overgrown with water-lilies and lotus, now in full blossom. At six o'clock p.m. the Temperance Society held a meeting in the Town Hall, at which about 1,500 persons were present ; and at seven, in the same place, the public meeting took place at which delegates were elected to the Congress, the number reaching 2,000. It was presided over by Mr. Saminada Aiyer, president of the Municipal Council, whose guests we were, and was characterised by much enthusiasm. At nine o'clock a torch- light procession was organised in our honour, which escorted us to Mr. Saminada's house, where all the leaders of the Congress movement were assembled to meet us. The palace elephants, camels, and processional horses, with the whole standing army of the Princess of Tanjore, consisting of twelve soldiers armed with flint muskets, and the palace band, headed the procession. We followed with Mr. Saminada and the Committee, the friends of the Congress movement bringing up the rear — a vast crowd. Every fifty yards or so we all stopped while fireworks of various kinds were let off. On one occasion an English officer of the police force, who was passing by, showed his scorn for the whole proceeding by kicking a large set piece of firework, all ablaze, among the bare legs of Hindoo gentlemen very much his superior in manners, if JiDtiEU coiour. It is not easy to describe the picturesqueness of this procession, the gay native dresses, the gorgeous elephant trappings, all lighted by the blaze of petroleum torches, Bengal lights, and other fireworks. This description of a day at Tanjore is fairly characteristic of our reception everywhere, each town vieing with the other in trying to impress us with the appreciative gratitude of educated Indians to the members of the Indian Political Agency, the Anglo-Indian Tem- perance Association, and, indeed, to all Englishmen who show a practical interest in India's people. As I have said in previous letters, all the meetings I attend are conducted in English, and the speeches of the eloquent Indians are worthy of our best political platforms at home. I am more and more impressed, every day I am in India, with the deep roots the National Congress has struck into the social and political soil of the country, and the rapidly increasing number of those who are able and fit to take a practical interest in political life. The spread of European education in India is producing a public opinion everywhere, of which the Congress movement is no doubt the most conspicuous evidence, but which is rapidly eating its way into the caste system, and sapping the very foundations of Brah- manism. I have found that the public opinion of Southern India is practically moulded by the Congress Committee of Madras city, and takes its tone from such papers as the Hindu ; the masses of the people throughout India look to the educated natives of what may be termed the " market towns " for guidance in their affairs, and these country towns A COUNTRY BULLOCK CART. YOUNG IND'A. 25 V. in their turn look to Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay. If the Govern- ment desire to keep at touch at all with na- tive feeling e v erywhere, they must re- alise that the heart from which in future the thoughts and actions of the Indian people must ebb and flow is the university influence of the Pr esi dency capitals. The leaders of this influence are c omparative 1 y young men fighting their way in life, and their followers consist of every man who has been to a high school or col- lege for an Anglo-verna- cular educa- tion, and to the growing mass of youth who are still students. The average Con- gress meeting consists of a congregation of seven or 26 YOUNG INDIA. \ { ei...■ ' .- < h t- O -I < >■ _1 X C3 O o X LU I I- YOUNG INDIA. 37 great things from him as President of the Sixth Indian National Congress, and don't think we shah be disappointed. The number of delegates this year will be less than at the two previous Congresses (1,248 at Allahabad, and 1,889 at Bombay) in consequence of the enormous difficulty and cost which in India attends the transport, lodging, and provisioning of so large a number of men of different castes, habits, and language. Last year therefore the Congress passed a resolution limiting for the future the number of delegates from each circle to five per million of the population, which gives, roughly, about 1,000 delegates in all. The number of visitors, however, will be greater than ever, and the demand from the country districts for reserved places in the hal\ is so greit, as to show that if this restriction had not been laid the number of elected delegates would have far surpassed any previous Congress, and the Reception Committee would have been simply crushed. Their responsibility is of course KALI GHAT, CALCUTTA. limited to the t,ooo actual delegates, which has been found more than enough. I think that eventually the number will have to be reduced to 500 I have in previous letters commented on the election of delegates. I have now seen the reports from nearly all the districts, and they give evidence of a steadily increasing and more widespread interest than has ever been shown before. In one way and another I think it no exaggeration to estimate the number of intelligent men who have taken part in the election of delegates throughout India at over six ^millions. The Congress opens the day after to-morrow ; the work is now beyond the risk of failure in any of its'departments, and the hard-worked Committee find time to breathe. Leaving the great hall in the hands of the hundred tailors who are stitching on flags to the tall bamboo columns, and putting the finishing touches to the decorations generally, both of the hall and the vast reception tent, a few of us feel justified in taking a holiday. We have spent the day YOUNG INDIA. on the Hooghly river, on board Mr. Manomohun Ghose's steam launch. Let your shivering readers at home envy me, on the day before Christmas, as I sit under an awning on board a steam launch, in thin flannels, with a pretty rose gathered in Mrs. Ghose's garden in my button hole, and a good supply of iced lemonade at my elbow ! We embark at the British India Company's Wharf, as one of their great steamers shakes loose from a swarm of attendant " budgerows " to start on a four days' voyage to Rangoon. We drop down the river, past a triple row ot the finest sailing ships in the world, a mile and a half long, whose yards, masts, and ringing stand out against the clear morning sky in strong dark lines like a fine etching . There is no such spectacle of shipping in the world to com- pare with this line of huge sailing ships on the Hooghly, carrying away to all parts of the world the traffic of the two mightiest rivers of India, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, as well as that of two great Indian railways. We presently steam past the mouth of Tolly's Nullah, on whose bank is the famous Kali Ghat, which gives Calcutta its name. This is supposed to be the real original home of the terrible wife of Siva, where from time im- memorial she has held her court and welcomed her horrid worshippers. Kali Ghat is a humble thatched building, its reputation for holiness making up for the absence of architecture. It is practically the only public temple in Calcutta, whose pious Hindus are all content with their domestic shrines. Kali Ghat is a wonderful sight on festival days, when all orthodox Calcutta bathes in Tolly's Nullah, as close to the Ghat as the crowd permits. Eight or nine miles further down the river is the great jute mill belonging to Mr. George Yule, an ex-president of Congress, who in these works, and an adjacent cotton mill employs over 7,000 persons. Here we disembarked for lunch at Mr. Yule's fine bungalow, picturesquely placed on the very edge of the Hooghly, enjoying a superb view of many miles up and down the river. Coming home in the cool of the evening, we stopped at " Garden Ghat " for an hour's stroll through one of the loveliest gardens in the world. The Ghat is crowded with pleasure budgerows, as the most popular excursion in Calcutta is a gipsy tea in its famous Botanical Gardens. We wander along the banks of its pretty lake, admiring its wonderful water gardens, and the magnificent blossoms of the great" Victoria Regia " lilies : through the great falmetum, where palms from all over the tropics are planted in charm- ing groups ; in and out oFsHady orchid houses and ferneries ; across lawns shadowed by mahogany and deodar trees, till we reach th e great glory q f_ the gr^^ris ^the huge B anian tree, under whose shade an ? r my might encamp, but which is now gay with picnic parties. Its trunk is more than fifty feet in circumference, 200 air roots have dropped to the earth from its mighty branches, each forming a fresh trunk, until in less than 100 years, for it was born with the century, this giant tree has reached an outside circumference of 800 feet, and is growing away harder than ever. The garden fronts the river for a mile, and is 272 acres in extent. We got back at dusk, in time to dine and dress for an entertainment given by Judge Tagore (referred to just now) in the old family mansion in the heart of Calcutta. I find everywhere in Calcutta, in native circles, a very strong feeling of resentment towards the Government in consequence of the gross miscarriage of justice in the matter of the Dum-Dum murder case, which in my opinion has done more to strain the relations of the two races in India than anything that has happened for many a long year. As this case has not aroused much attention in England I will give a brief summary of the facts. One night lately four soldiers of the Leinster Regiment, stationed at Dum-Dum, a suburb YOUNG INDIA. 39 of Calcutta, left the barracks about ten o'clock with their rifles, ostensibly on a pig shooting expedition, but really on a hunt for drink. They went to two or three houses in the village and knocked up the inmates demanding liquor without success. They then went into a palm grove and stole some toddy out of the tree pots. About midnight they went to the house of one Selim Sheikh, who was asleep in his verandah. They dragged him out of his bed, knocked him about, and ordered him to take them to the nearest liquor shop. On his refusal they dragged him to a tank near his house and threw him into the water. Private O'Hara then aimed his rifle at him and was about to fire, when Private McDermott said, "For God's sake don't fire !" O'Hara replied, " Never mind, there are plenty more of these black bastards," and at orice she,t poor Selim, who was splashing about in the tank. Private Bellew then fired another shot at Selim, and the four went off, leaving him to his fate. His wife had aroused the neighbours, and they dragged him out, to die a few minutes later from a shot through the chest. The soldiers got back to the barracks unobserved, and it was only when a reward of 500 rupees was offered, with a conditional pardon, that the two soldiers who had not fired turned Queen's evidence. O'Hara and Bellew were then committed to the Calcutta High Court on a charge of murder. Clearer evidence was never given in a court of justice. In addition to the two Queen's witnesses, Bhootnath, a native shopkeeper who had been roused by the prisoners in search of drink, swore positively to their identity. Judge Norris, who tried the case, directed the acquittal of Bellew ; the jury unani- mously found O'Hara guilty, and Judge Norris sentenced him to death. It came out in course of the trial that the Leinster Regiment had raised a subscription for the defence of the two soldiers and several of their comrades attempted to prove an alibi, which broke down hopelessly. Judge Norris, commenting on this from the bench, said he was astonished that a regiment of Englishmen and Irishmen had not thought fit to raise any subscription for the support of the widow and children of the murdered man, a remark which appears, for some inscrutable reason, to have given great offence to certain of the Anglo-Indian community in Calcutta, who made desperate attempts to get the sentence commuted. The Leinster Regiment was said to be in a state of boiling indignation at the idea of one of their comrades being hanged for killing a "nigger"; and it was commonly reported that if the sentence were carried out the regiment would mutiny, and shoot down every native they could find. At last an appli- cation was made to the Advocate-General for a certificate to the effect that Judge Norris was 'wrong in his charge to the jury. He refused it at first, but subsequently relented and granted the application. There was no record except the judge's notes ; yet on such flimsy grounds the whole case was revised before a bench consisting of the Chief Justice two civilian judges, and two barrister judges, of whom Mr. Norris was one. This bench held that Judge Norris was wrong in telling the jury that the two soldiers who turned informers were not accomplices in the crime, and on a review of the evidence acquitted O'Hara. A more disastrous miscarriage ot justice never occurred. No one has the smallest doubt that a cold-blooded murder was committed, the outcome of the brutal contempt for " black men " that is unhappily still the characteristic of many ignorant and prejudiced Englishmen in India. A most unfortunate impression has been created in native circles that the Government have yielded to fear and threats, and lent themselves to the encourage- ment of a race-hatred that they ought, above all others, to be the first to stamp out. The_ nasty smear left behind by the O'Hara case will take many years to rub out. I do not pretend to understand the legal intricacies of Indian criminal law ; no doubt the Judges and 4° YOUNG INDIA. the Advocate-General had no course open to them but to acquit the prisoner. The fact remains, that a soldier, whom everyone believes to be an exceptionally brutal murderer, escapes punishment, and leaves the court to return to his regiment again, an injured innocent ! A BUDGEROW, CALCUTTA. CHAPTER VII. The Scene in the Congress Hall— The President's Address. — The Resolutions. — The " Social Congress" and Child Marriage. — The Government and the Congress. [HE Sixth Indian National Congress has met and parted. It has not been quite the brilliant success of its two predecessors. In a capital where almost every educated man is either in Government service, or hoping to get a son into Government service, a gathering of educated men meeting under the freezing disapproval of Government has every chance of failing. But the Congress is not flags and decorations, hospitality and evening parties, bands and banners, and applauding crowds ; these help to impress the casual observer, no doubt, but the real thing is the thousand delegates who have come from all parts of India, men in deadly ear- nest, who sit in the centre of the great Congress hall debating and resolving on matters of deep import to their country. The scene in the Congress hall is one of great brilliance. Every delegate wears the distinctive head-dress of his district — crimson, green, blue, orange, white and gold turbans of all sizes, shapes, and colours. Here and there the mass of colour is relieved by the queer receding oilcloth hat of a Parsee, the extraordinary gold hat of a Sind delegate, like an English hat with the crown cut out, turned upside down, and worn with the brim in the air, or the black and gold cap of some Oudh Mussulman. The dresses are equally picturesque. One delegate is clad in white satin from head to foot, the sheen relieved by a turban and scarf of the finest white muslin ; another in sapphire. velvet embroidered with gold ; others in dove-coloured cloth, gold or silver kincobs, cashmere shawls, and Benares brocades. All round this gay and s himmering company are vast crowds of Calcutta citizens, who dress for the most part in sober colours without turbans. Three thousand bare black heads throw out in rich relief the mass of colour in the centre. Right opposite the platform is gallery A, reserved for distinguished visitors. This is almost empty, " distinguished " men in India being mostly under Government influence. On the right side of the platform is a space filled by sixty or seventy Indian ladies, mostly members of the Brahmo-Somaj, who have put on their bravest apparel and finest gauds for the occasion, in the front rank of whom are nine lady delegates elected at- a public meeting in Calcutta. The dignified lady whose cap is en- cruste d with pearls, and w hose gold-embroideied Sari is worth a king's ransom, is Mrs. Ghosal, the wife of the energetic hon. secretary, and granddaughter of Dwarkanath Tagore ; she is the editress of the " Bharati, '' a Bengali magazine for ladies. By her side is Mrs. Ganguli, a fully-qualified doctor of medicine, and the most distinguished woman graduate of Calcutta University. Mrs. Some, B.A., Mrs. Chatterjee, Misses Bose, Sarkar, and Banerjee, in the same row, are all Christian ladies distinguished in Bengal female educational work ; Mrs. Mozumdar is the superintendent of a large girls' school, Mrs. Bose a well-known authoress, and Mrs. Chowdhury the editress of a vernacular paper. Mrs. Ganguli wished to speak on the salt-tax resolution, but was suppressed by some busybody, to the great disappointment of everybody. She afterwards moved the vote of thanks to the president. The proceedings commenced punctually at 2 p.m. on Friday, the 26th December. The president-elect, Mr. Pherozshah Mehta, was escorted by the chairman and leading members of the Reception Committee from the Bungalow to the Great Hall. On entering, the whole 4 2 YOUNG INDIA. w w uJ (K CI z o o z < Q z UJ I H (3 Z H UJ < YOUNG INDIA. 43 of the vast audience of 6,000 rose to their feet, with cheer upon cheer, till the platform was reached. The speech in which Mr. Manomohun Ghose, the chairman, then welcomed the delegates to Calcutta was one of rare ability and discretion. The election of Mr. Mehta as president was proposed by the Honourable Sir Romesh C. Mitter, retired chief justice of Bengal, in a charming little speech, seconded by Nawab Shams-ud-dowla, a rnussulman delegate from Oudh, and supported by Anandu Charles from Madras and Prince Ghulam Rabbani from Mysore. He was elected by thundering acclamations. In the Presidential address of Mr. Mehta it was remarkable that, though he is a Parsee, he drew no less than seven of his illustrations from the Bible. I was much struck with the prompt way in which every, one of them was taken up by the audience, an evidence of the widespread influence of mission schools and colleges in the creation of this growing mass of educated Indians, as well as of the failure of an education vene ered with Christianity to make converts to Christianity. I doubt if there were sixty Christians out of the whole 6,000 MRS. GHOSAL. MRS. GANGULI. present. Your young Bengali is a very roach for sucking the paste off the missionary hook without beina: caught himself. The most telling sentences in Mr. Mehta's able address were those in" which Tie put into the witness-box on behalf of the Congress an array of Anglo- Indian officials, beginning with Sir William Hunter and Sir Richard Garth, going on to Lord Northbrook, Lord Ripon, Lord Dufferin, and Sir Charles Elliott. He closed this part of his speech with a quotation from Macaulay's well-known dedication to Henry, Mar- quis of Lansdowne, appealing to the present Viceroy in the following words : — "The dawn of that day which Macaulay foresaw was but the prophetic vision of the reality which is now breaking on the horizon, the curtain which is now rising on the drama. Let us earnestly hope that the present illustrious bearer of the great historic name of Lans- downe, who by a wonderful ordering of events has now come to rule over us, may watch the glowing streaks of light with generous sympathy, and preside over the certain march of events with timely and provident statesmanship." 44 YOUNG INDIA. At the close of his speech Mr. Mehta took his seat on the president's chair, and the Congress was formally opened. The only business done that day was the formal election of the "Subjects Committee,'"' a body of 105 delegates elected according to population by the Standing Committees of the different district circles throughout India. This body is prac- tically the heart of the whole Congress. It meets daily before and after the public session, settles the subjects to be discussed, the wording of the resolutions, their movers and seconders, and is the paramount authority on all procedure. Consisting as it does of the picked men of educated India, the debates of the Subjects Committee are of the greatest interest, and I have never sat upon any Committee (except the grand Committee of the House which dealt with Mr. Chamberlain's Bankruptcy Bill) which transacted its business more promptly and with so little unnecessary palave r. On many details of the subjects pro- posed there were the keenest differences of opinion and prolonged discussion, which, how- ever, always ended in mutual concession and final agreement. On Saturday, the 27th, the proceedings commenced with the moving of the principal resolution, approving Mr. Bradlaugh's Bill to amend the India Councils Act, and peti- tioning Parliament to pass it into law. This was proposed by Mr. Lalmohun Ghose, as representing Bengal, in a quiet, impressive speech, seconded in faultless English by Mr. Anandu Charlu, of Madras, supported by Mr. Naidu, of Nagpur, a young barrister in a superfine English masher get up, who convulsed the audience by introducing himself as the " Secretary of State for India in the Paddington Parliament," and who was promptly clo- sured by the President while taking a glass of water ; further supported by Madan Mohun Moulavi, of Allahabad, one of the favourite orators of the Congress, Mr. Bishan Naryan, of Lucknow, a Kashmeri Brahman, who has been " outcast " for going to England ; Mr. Lalla Hukani Chund, from Lahore ; and Mr. Shufruddin, a Mussulman barrister from Behar, thus covering the whole of India. Other speakers followed, with a five minutes' limit, fervid eloquence and quiet statesmanlike argument alternating in quick succession in a free debate equal in quality to great occasions in the House of Commons. The resolution was carried with great unanimity and enthusiasm. The second resolution was an " omnibus " one, ratifying and confirming resolutions passed by previous Congresses, calling for the complete separation of executive and judicial functions in the civil administration ; extension of trial by jury ; reform of police adminis- tration ; the establishment of military colleges for natives of India ; the admission of natives to volunteer forces ; the relief of small incomes from income tax ; the increase of public expenditure on education, especially technical ; reduction of military expenditure ; the examination of candidates for the Civil Service simultaneously in India and England ; and the relaxation of the Arms Act in districts where destructive wild animals abound. This resolution was moved by a Christian Hindu, Mr. Kali Charan Banerjee, a leading High Court pleader, editor of the " Indian Christian Herald," and the minister of the Christo-Somaj, which calls itself the United Church of India, aiming to unite all Indian Christians in one Church. He delivered a clever and eloquent speech, bristling with Scripture quotations, caught up and loudly applauded by his audience, in further proof of what I observed a few sentences back. The resolution passed without debate. The third resolution petitioned Parliament to restore the right, formerly possessed by members of the House of Commons, of stating to Parliament any matter of grievance of the natives of India before the Speaker leaves the chair on going into Committee on the Indian Budget statement, and further urged the reasonable request that in future the House would discuss the Indian Budget at such a date and in such manner as would ensure its YOUNG INDIA. 45 full and adequate discussion. This resolution was moved by me, and seconded by Mr. George Yule, who made one of his wisest and most statesmanlike speeches. The fourth resolution recognised the reforms in Excise revenue promised by the Govern- ment of India in response to previous prayers of the Congress, noting "with pleasure" the increase to the import duty on spirits, the taxation imposed on Indian malt liquors, the decision of the Bengal Government to abolish the outstill system, and the closing of over 7,000 liquor shops in the Madras Presidency, and urged the Government to insist on all provincial administrations carrying out in their integrity the policy in matters of excise enunciated in clauses 103, 104, and 105 of their despatch to the Secretary of State for India in March last, in reply to the censure of Parliament carriejd by Mr. Samuel Smith in March 1888. This note of victory was vigorously taken up by the Congress, who carried the resolution without debate amid loud and repeated applause, and then adjourned till Monday morning. The Indian National Congress has always refused to discuss social questions. The Committee hold, and rightly, that in a Congress composed of representatives of all the various religious communities of a nation, whose every social custom and domestic institution is based on religious observance or ceremonial, it would not be right or wise to discuss matters which, like widow marriage, the age of consent, or caste rules, effect exclusively a moiety of the community. The Madras delegates, coming from the most enlightened and advanced Hindu community in India, were very desirous of bringing forward a resolution before the Congress itself in favour of the raising of the age of consent. The Subjects Committee, though over- whelmingly in favour of it personally, refused even to discuss it as a possible subject for the Congress on the grounds just stated. The whole question of child marriage is so pre-eminently the question of the hour in India that greater interest was felt by nearly every delegate in the debates and decisions of the " Social Conference," which for the last four years has met in the great hall on the Sunday of Congress week. This Conference is open to all the delegates, as well as to the representatives of the affiliated societies scattered all over India. At one o'clock on Sunday afternoon more than 1,000 social reformers, including many Indian ladies, were gathered together to form ihe fourth Indian Social Conference. Dr. Mohendro Lai Sircar, a distinguished man of science, was the president-elect. He was veiy ill, and was not expected ; but shortly after the proceedings began, he arrived, stating that he had " almost dragged himself from the brink of the grave " in his anxiety to be present. He spoke with much evident suffering, but with rare eloquence. I have seldom listened to a more stirring and pathetic appeal than his reference to child marriage. He declared with authority, based upon long experience, that this horrid custom was entirely to blame for the physical degeneracy of the. Hindu race. " If," said he, " the Govern- ment left our shores to-day, could Bengal maintain it to-morrow ? No ! this custom has destroyed that great capacity for work and enterprise which characterised old Hindus, and stronger races would eat us up. Improve the fountain of life, and you may hope to compete with races born of mature parents ; but the Hindu race to-day consists of abortions and premature births ! " These sentiments were received with universal approval and applause. The resolution bearing upon child marriage was moved by Mr. Mudholkar, of Amraoti, and seconded by Madan Mohun Moulavi, both popular Congress orators ; and the debates on this and every other resolution were conducted by Congress delegates, who formed three- fourths of the meeting. I look upon the decisions of the Social Conference as even more weighty than those of the Congress itself, composed as it is of all its best elements, combined 4 6 YOUNG INDIA. with other reformers who from various reasons cannot join the Congress. The resolution as submitted is as follows : — " That this Conference is of opinion that the injunctions of the Shastras and the well-being of the community alike demand that the practice of child marriage should be discouraged by public sentiment, and that within the sphere of the various castes and communities strenuous effort be made to postpone the betrothal of boys and girls beyond the age of ten and sixteen years, and the celebration of marriage rites tiil twelve in the case of girls, and eighteen in the case of boys, and the consummation of the marriage till after they attain the ages of fourteen and twenty respectively, and that members of the various social reform associations in the country should, as far as possible, pledge themselves to see that these lirruts of age are realised lis their own case and in actual practice, and public opinion educated to advance these limits still higher, so as to secure a return to the best traditions of our ancestors, and avoid the many evils consequent upon the perversion of the old practice." The resolution, as finally passed, omitted all the words printed in italics, and inserted those in capitals. It will be seen at a glance that the whole tendency of the debate, which lasted over two hours, was to strengthen, and not weaken, the resolution. The speakers were from all over India, and singularly representative. They brought out in striking and eloquent speeches the undoubted fact that the early marriage system of the Hindus every- where is the fruitful source of many cases of immorality and cruelty, which, by existing legislation, are under the protection of law ; that in only too many instances young immature girls are practically murdered by husbands, who escape all punishment, and that thousands of young mothers perish in childbirth, their places being filled by fresh victims. This debate, following upon endless discussion in private during the last six weeks, convinces me that the Government may quite as safely legislate in the direction of raising the age of consent to fourteen as in the case of Suttee. The other resolutions condemned the imprisonment of women in execution of decrees for restitution of conjugal rights, condemned the outcasting of persons who undertake sea voyages, the detestable practice of men over fifty years marrying girls under twelve, and other matters of minor interest. At the close Mr. C. E. Schwann, M.P., said a few words, and Mrs. Schwann made a charming and sympathetic little speech, which was quite one of the events of the day. The Congress met again at 1 1 o'clock on Monday, a good many Dissenting Missionaries of both sexes being present in the visitors' gallery, including Bishop Thoburn, of the American Methodists, and Mr. Ashton, the veteran of the London Missionary Society. The first resolution carried appealed to Government to reduce the salt tax to its old limits before the recent enhancement ; the next dealt with the permanent settlement question, and the animated debates on these two subjects occupied the greater portion of the sitting. Towards the close Mr. Manomohun Ghose brought forward a resolution which had no place on the agenda paper, but which has awakened stronger feeling than any other incident of the Congress. It was seconded by Mr. George Yule. This resolution was as follows : — That this Congress having observed with surprise a notice, apparently official, in various Calcutta n ewspapers which runs as follows : — "The Congress. " The Bengal Government, having learnt that tickets of admission to the visitors' enclosure in the Congress pavilion have been sent to various Government officers residing in Calcutta, has issued a circular to all YOUNG INDIA. 47 Secretaries and heads of departments subordinate to it, pointing out that under the orders of the Government of India the presence of Government officials, even as visitors at such meetings, is not advisable, and that their taking part in the proceedings of any such meetings is absolutely prohibited." And having also considered a letter addressed by the private secretary of his Honour the Lieutenant- Governor of Bengal to the Secretary of the Reception Committee, of which the following is an exact copy : — " Belvedere, Dec. 26. " Dear Sir, — In returning herewith the seven cards of admission to the visitors' enclosure of the Congress pavilion, which were kindly sent by you to my address yesterday afternoon, I am desired to say that the Lieutenant-Governor and the members of his household could not possibly avail themselves of these tickets, since the orders of the Government of India definitely prohibit the presence of Government officials at such meetings. — Yours faithfully, • " P. C. LYON, " To J. Ghosal, Esq., Private Secretary- Secretary, Congress Reception Committee." Authorises and instructs its President, Mr. Pherozshah Mehta, to draw the attention of his Excellency the Viceroy to the declaration embodied in these papers, that Government servants are prohibited from attending any meetings of the Congress even as spectators, and to inquire most respectfully whether his Honour the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal has or has not correctly interpreted the orders of the Government of India. For the last twelve months it has been abundantly clear all over India that the word of command has gone out to Government servants from the Lieutenant-Governors to the chuprassies that no one in the employ of the State is to give the slightest encouragement to the Congress. In many instances petty annoyances and veiled threats are used to prevent influential people from taking any part in political meetings, and the Congress movement generally is treated as " seditious," and as though it were a grave danger to the State, Sympathisers who have sons at college are told that they stand in the way of possible places in Government service for their lads, and a leading Calcutta barrister tells me that during the last month several Government pensioners have asked his advice as to whether or not they risked their pensions by attending the meetings of the Congress ! When Mr. Mudholkar left for England last spring, for the purpose of advocating Congress matters at home, a friend of his invited some others to his house to give him a farewell and perfectly private dinner. A Government servant was invited and came, and a day or two afterwards was present on the railway platform to say good-bye to Mr. Mudholkar. For this heinous offence he was reported to the Chief Commissioner by the collector, and was sent for to give personal explanations. On the top of all this sort of thing comes a silly manifesto of the Bengal Government, absolutely forbidding the presence of Government officials, " even as visitors," the Lieutenant- Governor writing a letter to the Secretary of the Congress, definitely applying the official prohibition to the visitors' gallery of the Congress. Mr. Yule, in seconding the resolution I have just mentioned, was justly indignant, speaking of the Lieutenant-Governor's letter as " a gross insolence offered to a body of men whose chief public characteristics are devotion to the Queen and devotion to the true interests of the country, animated by as true and honest a purpose as any official in the land " — a sentence that brought the vast audience to its feet with repeated ringing cheers, sweeping the resolution through without further debate and without being put from the chair formally. This poor and contemptible policy pursued by the Government is taken up and outran by the Government newspapers, the most servile in the world. While the Statesman and the Mirror (Calcutta dailies) print the proceedings of the Congress almost verbatim, the E?igltsh?nan, which arrogates to itself a similar position to that 4 8 YOUNG INDIA. enjoyed by the Times in England, was absolutely silent for the first three days, and on the fourth dismissed a public conference of 1,000 picked representa- tives from all over India with six contemptuous lines of small print, the only speeches reported by them being delivered by Mr. Yule and myself ; as though the editor wished, by selecting two unimportant speeches by Englishmen, and omitting ever}- other, to show their contempt for every native of India who took part in the proceedings. Now the Congress movement is either seditious, or it is not. If it be seditious, the Government ought to suppress it, and they have ample powers at their disposal for the purpose. If it be not seditious, their attitude towards it is contemptible and unworthy of the great traditions of the Indian Civil Service. No one could desire that Government servants should enter into the arena of Indian politics, or sit as delegates to the Congress ; but to forbid them to pay a rupee for a seat in the gallery, or accept complimentary tickets for space specially reserved for neutral visitors, is as insulting to the Civil Service as it is to the Congress itself. Lord Connemara was more farseeing than Lord Lansdowne, for when the Congress met at Madras, in 1887, he gave a garden party, as the invitation stated, "in honour of the president, and those distinguished Indians who are the delegates to the Congress." What has transpired since 1887 to justify such a change of attitude on the part of the authorities? I affirm without hesitation that it is impossible to point out a single sentence uttered by a single speaker at any of the six congresses that could by the mightiest stretch of imagination be construed into sedition. So far as the Congress lectures are concerned, we have yet to receive the first complaint from Government. If it could be shown that they talk sedition they would get nothing by it but summary dismissal. Bearing in mind the fact that the very first who would suffer from any damage to the prestige of British overrule, and who would perish hopelessly if it were overturned, are those men who form the backbone of the Congress movement, which, rightly guided and encouraged, would be rather a strong prop to the Government than any weakness, I shall wait with interest to see whether or not this pro- hibition will apply equally to the ultra-political gathering known in England as well as in India by the name of the " St. Andrew's dinner," the popular resort hitherto of Viceroys and Lieutenant-Governors. The passing of this resolution closed Monday's sitting, which was adjourned to one o'clock, Tuesday. The last session of Congress was devoted to votes of thanks, which in Indian gatherings are somewhat effusive, sundry formal necessary business, and the settlement of the place where the ensuing Congress was to be held. This latter was left to the Standing Committee to decide, there being rival invitations from Madras and Nagpur. One resolution, however, was brought forward that stirred the Congress to its very heart, and gave rise to the most remarkable discussion of all : — "That provisional arrangements be made to hold a Congress, of not less than 100 delegates, in England, all things being convenient, in 1892, and that the several standing Congress Committees be directed to report at the coming Congress the names of the delegates that it is proposed to depute from their respective circles." It had been feared by the inner ring of the Congress that the difficulty of getting high caste Hindus to cross the sea, with all that such a step involves to them, would destroy the represen- tative character of a Congress to be held in England, which for some months past has been dis- cussed, owing to the necessity for giving British politicians an object lesson in what are the real aims and actual constitution of the Indian National Congress. The resolution was therefore brought forward tentatively and cautiously by Mr. Nurendra Nath Sen, the editor of the Mirro?: YOUNG INDIA. 49 To our astonishment and satisfaction no fewer than fourteen orthodox Hindus, many of them notable for their extreme orthodoxy, sprang up one after the other to make warm speeches in favour of the resolution, and to declare their willingness to go themselves ; a Mahratta Brahman bringing down the house by declaring that " history proved beyond a doubt that Mahratta Brahmans had never allowed their political advancement to be hindered by caste rules." A sharp point was given to most of the speeches by constant reference to the Governor's circular, one speaker delighting everybody with a declaration that their " beloved Queen-Empress was far more likely to invite them all to see her at Windsor Castle , than to issue a proclamation forbidding her Secretaries of State and her walking postmen .' from attending the meetings of the Congress." A hearty welcome was promised on behalf -"■of the Indian political agency in London, and the resolution was carried without a dissentient, marking a step in advance on the part of Hindu society of the very deepest significance. The Sixth Congress was then brought to a close by a well earned and hearty vote of thanks to its president, Mr. Pherozshah Mehta, moved by Mrs. Ganguli, M.D., in a very charming and appropriate manner. That an audience containing at least 5,000 Hindus should rise and cheer a Hindu lady making a speech to 6,000 men would indeed have appeared incredible five years ago — at any rate in Bengal. The President called for and obtained three lusty cheers for the Queen-Empress, and formally dissolved the Congress, which, in spite of the little drawbacks incident to inferior local management, has in no whit fallen behind any of its predecessors in wisdom, judgment, statesmanship, or forensic ability. The educational policy of the Government, the concession of a free press, and the right of public meeting, have at last produced a generation of Indians filled with the social and political teaching of the most advanced minds of Europe and America, and developed political life for the first time in the history of India. It has given birth to twins ; and, like political life everywhere, two political parties have sprung into existence. The Liberal party consists of every man who, as a lad, has been taught English in Anglo-vernacular schools, and grown to manhood under the shadow of the great Indian universities ; the Conservative consists of the Anglo-Indian community, and its hangers on, with a few honourable exceptions like Mr. Cotton, the brilliant author of New India. The " Liberal " party will win, in the long run, as it always has done in every country in the world. No sane man can even suggest that Parliamentary institutions, as we understand them in England, will be possible or suitable for India for many generations. But the Congress makes no such demand. All it asks is that the native element now admitted to the Legislative Councils of the Viceroy and pro- vincial governors shall be elected instead of selected. Surely it cannot be a hindrance, but only a help, to any Government that its best and most capable citizens should be chosen by their fellows to render assistance in making and mending the laws, and criticising their administration. The wildest Congress-wallah has never asked for more than half the members of the Legislative Councils, leaving the Government with a standing majority by the casting vote of the Governor, while still leaving the Executive entirely in the hands of the British over-rule . The foolish attitude of the Government towards the Congress, and the unreasonable violence of its official press, cannot retard its progress, and by choking off the more moderate and cautious will only throw its guidance into the hands of the more advanced and enthusi- astic of its supporters. It has already forced an appeal to the good sense and calm judgment of England by the projected Congress in London. D 5° YOUNG INDIA. If the Congress movement continues to be conducted with the loyalty, patience, moderation, and good sense that has hitherto characterised its proceedings, it cannot be long before the legislative councils of India will at any rate be partly composed of members elected by some constituency which will consist of such of the people as by education and other qualification may be safely entrusted with a carefully-guarded franchise. More than this the Congress neither expects nor demands. I ■ i . ! 3 VIEW IN BOTANICAL GARDENS, CALCUTTA. CHAPTER VIII. Temples and Temperance at Benares. — A remarkable Temperance advocate. — A Mohammedan Mission to England. — The Missionaries in India. LEFT Patna at daybreak on New Year's morning, travelling up to Benares in the same carriage as several pious Congressmen, who intended killing two birds with one stone by including a pilgrimage to the holy city in the same railway fare as the Congress. The train was full of pilgrims, and as we slowly crossed the magnificent steel bridge 1,200 yards long, the pride of the "Oudh and Rohilkhand," the carriage windows were crowded with eager faces to get a first glimpse of what is undoubtedly the most picturesque, as well as the holiest, city in all India. It lies on a lovely sweep of the mighty Ganges, along the crest of a high bank rising 100 ft. above the water. Viewed from the bridge, it presents a panorama of palaces, temples, and mosques, surmounted by domes, pinnacles, and minarets, stretching for nearly three miles. It is said there are three thousand Hindu temples, great and small, in Holy Benares. Most of these are scattered along the bank of the river, intermingled with noble palaces built by Maharajahs and wealthy merchants, from which descend great flights of stone stairs, THE SHORES OF THE GANGES AT BENARES. or ghats, broken into wide platforms, on which are built lovely shrines, bathing-houses, or canopies to shelter preaching fakirs. Long wooden piers project into the river for the use of bathers, and in the early morning these ghats present a scene of marvellous interest, alive with pilgrims from every part of India, in every variety of costume, some up to their waists in the river, others grouped under huge straw umbrellas, crowding round some holy ascetic, or listening to the eloquence of a learned Mahant or preacher. . The whole of this mass of Hinduism is dominated by the sublime mosque, built by Aurangzeb, the Iconoclast, on the sight of the world-renowned temple of Krishna, which he" swept away with every other temple in Benares. Soaring 300 ft. into the air, sheer from the water's edge, desolate and neglected, it is no longer suggestive of Mussulman conquest, but rather a monument of that obstinate and indomitable Brahman faith which has lived down Buddha's precepts, Aurangzeb iconoclasm, and the mild and gentle teaching of Christ. But I have not come to Benares this time to study Hindu religious observances, but to congratulate the Benares Total Abstinence Society on the new departure which has D 2 52 YOUNG INDIA. M Irtish taking been made under their auspices, and which I hope may be destined to work a mighty reform among the drinking sections of Hindus throughout India. Just two years ago, at a meeting in the Town Hall, Benares, addressed by Mr. Thomas Evans and myself, a Brahman Mahant, or religious teacher, was present, named Kesho Ram Roy. He was deeply impressed with the importance to India of the temperance reformation, and decided to devote his entire life to its advocacy. He at once introduced himself to the secretary, Mr. Arthur Parker, of the London Mission, and unfolded the scheme which has proved so extraordinary a success. He proposed to appeal to the tribal and caste instincts of the Indian people, and induce the Panchayats, or councils of the various castes, to consider and legislate upon the drinking habits of the people under their jurisdiction. The Benares T.A. Society took up the scheme with enthusiasm, and Mr. Parker and the Mahant decided that the first attack should be made upon the great Benares caste of Ahirs (cowkeepers). The head men were got together March 31, 1889, and were appealed to with ■JJa^CTsrae^ all the Mahant's extraordinary eloquence. The dis- y\ cussion which followed was prolonged past midnight, U;];\] '■ ; and as dawn broke they decided to adopt a rule , 'iW+JA' binding total abstinence upon all the members of the Ahir caste. So powerful a caste lead, it was easy to get others to follow. On April 25 a caste of village tailors, about two jl hundred, were gathered in Panchayat by the Mahant, and abjured the use of liquor. May 21, the blacksmiths, reckon- ed at about 10,000, fol- lowed the good example; May 23, a small caste of about 50 families, the Nyarias, came in; in June, the oil sellers ; in July, the gra in wasters ; in August, the Bhars of four villages in the sub- urbs, and the Rawats; in September, the caste of Katiks in other vil- lages were all brought by the Mahant's eloquence to adopt total abstinence as a caste rule. Other castes were induced to forbid the use of liquor at marriages and funerals, and even Mussulman castes were brought under the influence of the Mahant and his co-workers. The net result of all this has been to pledge A CORNER ON THE GANGES, BENARES. YOUNG INDIA. 53 40,000 or 50,000 of the industrial classes of Benares to total abstinence. The Ahirs, in particular, were notable for their drinking propensities, and the consumption of liquor immediately fell. The Excise revenue for Benares during the twelve months ending March 31 last, decreased 35,000 rupees, and a considerable number of liquor sellers, shortly after the action taken by the Ahirs, petitioned the ma- gistrates for a re- duction in the cost of their li- censes. Here is a trans- lation of the peti- tion — " Oh, Feeder of the Poor ! May God preserve you. Since the last annual sale of li- censes, your pe- titioners have suffered consider- able loss, on ac- count of the scarcity of grain. But the chief cause of our ruin is that all the Ahirs, whose number is 25,000, have en-, tirely given up the use of liquor, from which our income has been greatly re- duced. For these reasons we find it very difficult to pay up our instal- ments. But, in addition, the tailors have also given up the use of liquor. The MOSQUE OF AURANGZEB, BENARES. 54 YOUNG INDIA. potters, too, in whose marriage ceremonies large quantities of liquor were used, have resolved to abstain. Further, the blacksmiths are beginning to consult on the same subject. Consequently the'sale of liquor is wholly stopped." The petition then prays for a reduction in the fixed sum to be paid for their licenses. The Mahant will not rest content till he has induced every caste in Benares to make a total abstinence rule, and the work absorbs his whole time and energy. His house has been robbed, and his life threatened over and over again by the budmashes of the liquor sellers, and big bribes have also been offered to him to give up his agitation ; but he has stuck bravely to his work with a persistence that has compelled even the Abkari Commissioner of the N.P.W. to recognise it, and stamp it with approval. The example of Benares is being followed by other places, notably at Ahmad- nagar and Bellary, where a wealthy merchant, Rao Bahadur Sabapathy Mudeliar, has induced the weavers and other castes to make total abstinence rules, with much the same effect. « Keshub Ram Roy, Mahant, is the son of a Munshi of the C.M.S. Mission College at Benares. He is fifty-five years of age, a child- less widower supporting an aged mother and a brother's wife. He has had a good educa- tion, having spent eighteen years, from five years of age to twenty-three, in the schools and colleges of the C.M.S. For eight or nine years he was headmaster of successive day schools, and then entered the service of the East India Railway, reaching the position of station master. He is a high-caste orthodox Brahman, and in 1882, under strong religious convictions, became a Jogi Mahant (a preacher joined to God), taking a public vow of asceticism and consecration, devoting himself entirely to the public preaching of Hindu morality. He has lived since then upon his savings, eked out by coaching students in English, which he speaks fluently. He has now vowed his life to the Temperance cause, preaching total abstinence for four hours daily in different parts of the bazaar to the thousands of orthodox Hindus, who flock to Benares from all over India, devoting the rest of his time to perfecting his organisation among the various caste leaders. Next week he goes to Allahabad for the great Magh Mela, or sacred festival of the Ganges, to which hundreds of thousands of pilgrims resort, where he hopes to scatter seed that will bear fruit in other districts. So far as his work at Benares will permit, he will visit other centres of population and influence, and endeavour to establish elsewhere the peculiar methods which have proved so successful in his native city. A Hindu of Hindus, a Mahant of Benares, the dust of whose feet is sacred in the eyes of every pious Hinda, Keshub Ram Roy is everywhere welcomed with reverence, and listened to with the profoundest respect. He is a cultured man, a perfect gentleman, a MAHANT KESHUB RAM ROY. YOUNG INDIA. 55 natural orator of remarkable power, a born organiser, a leader of men, and a religious enthusiast. If he has rice and clothes for his two old women and himself, his earthly wants are met, and these are made sure for him by the kindness of friends, which he is not too proud to accept. If his life is spared, he will leave his mark for good on his native land, and give an impulse to the temperance movement in India that will never die. I met another and very different reformer in Benares, one Hasan Ali, a Mussulman Moulvi, who is travelling through India collecting money for a Mohammedan mission to England, which he is to conduct. Part of the money is to be spent in building a mosque and burial ground at Liverpool, where, according to his statement, forty-nine Englishmen have embraced the religion«of the Prophet, encouraging him to believe that England will be open to conversion. He spoke with great enthusiasm at a meeting of Benares Mussulmans, quoting Mr. Quilliam, of Liverpool, as the great apostle of Mohammed in England. He only moved Benares to ioo rupees, but in a chat I had with him he told me he had collected A FAKIR. 10,000 rupees at Haidarabad, 2,000 at Bangalore, and large sums elsewhere. He may be looked for in London about midsummer. Some of your readers may remember that in the Missionary controversy which raged two years ago at home I took a hand. I was rather sternly rebuked by some of my critics for venturing to say that if a Salvation Army missionary could live in India on £& or ^10 a year, and a Jesuit on ,£30, it ought to be possible for unmarried Protestant missionaries to get along somehow on ^50, and that without much asceticism. This is now being proved by actual experience, Mrs. Baxter, the wife of the editor and proprietor of the Christian Herald, has, I believe, sent out several missionaries into the Indian field, paying them ^50 a year. I have seen at least two of them, and find them quite up to the general average in quality, beyond the average in earnestness, quite content and happy, with no talk of hardship. On the Sutlej the steamer I came out in, there were two splendid young evangelists, who had been trained at the C.M.S. training home on Clapham Common, going 5 6 YOUNG INDIA. • out for ^50 a year — as fine specimens of young Missionaries as heart could wish. It is true they were not " in orders," but orders don't count for much with the Gonds, among, whom they were going to work. At Calcutta I had a long conversation with an old friend of mine, the Rev. W. R. James, who has been in the service of the Baptist Mission for many years. He has for a long time past held the opinion that three or four single men, living together, could do good work and be quite happy with regard to this world's affairs on ^60 a year. He came home while the controversy was on, and promptly offered to take out four others, if they could be got, and rest content with sixty rupees per month for each. The Committee agreed to make the experiment, and Mr. James found three students at Haverfordwest Baptist College — Messrs. Bevan, Davies, and Hughes — and one at Regent's Park College, Mr. Norledge, willing to go out with him at salaries of ^60 a year, instead of the ^150 which they could have claimed as the regulation pay of the Baptist Missionary Society. This act of self-denial is in itself evidence and earnest of the single hearted devotion of these fine young men, who have had the education and obtained the full standing possessed by the average Noncon- formist minister and missionary. They are settled at Madaripur, a district in the delta of the Ganges, with a population of half a million, including about 3,000 nominal Christians. They have been there a year, and during the time have not only maintained the work, but baptized ninety fresh converts. They all live in common in a bungalow belonging to the society, large enough to provide each with a bedroom about 18 ft. by 16 ft., with bath or dressing-room attached, surrounding a spacious general apartment. They have no lack of wholesome food. Although the only Europeans in the station, they can procure abundant supplies of excellent fish, eggs, poultry, ducks, fresh vegetables, rice, and other cereals ; they are able to afford to keep a cook, a table servant, a sweeper, and an outside man. The Mission provides a boat, the only means of locomotion possible. Service and food cost them about 30 rupees a month each, so they have practically half their allowance left for clothing and other necessaries. The B.M.S. have thus got a mission station with five very capable missionaries, all with full college training, at the same cost as two single men or one married missionary at regulation pay. If this experiment of the B.M.S. succeeds, as it seems to be doing, it will compel a complete revision of the pay and status of single missionaries throughout the whole Indian movement, which, if wisely carried out, ought to double their number, and by imposing the test of self-sacrifice, remove the life of the missionary from the arena of lucrative professions and greatly improve the general average. The religious mind of the Indian, whether Mussulman or Hindu, has always been trained to expect self-denial and asceticism from its religious teachers, which accounts for the great popularity of the Salvation Army wherever they establish themselves. The two best religious services of natives which I have seen since I left Madras were the open air meeting held on Sunday afternoon by the Salvation Army in Wellington Square, Calcutta, and their indoor meeting at their barracks in Bow Bazaar, in the heart of the city. The work in Calcutta is under the charge of Miss Pash, a student of Girton, who has passed the B.A. Cambridge examination, and who threw up a valuable High School appointment to come out to a Calcutta slum and live with two other Salvation lasses in a single room at the back of a hall, on ;£io a year each. They have about thirty volunteer workers, including a Hindu M.D., who is one of the most eloquent preachers I ever heard, both in English and Bengali. The Salvation Army is young in India and has yet to stand the test of time ; but I am confident that ten years hence it will prove itself as far in advance of the rest of the Christian Church in India as it has done in England, in the practical accomplishment of results. CHAPTER IX. Railway Extension i/i India. — The Cock-pit of Central India. — The Begam of Blwpal. OR the last four or five days we have been travelling on the Indian Midland Railway, finished last year for through traffic, whose connecting points are Allahabad, Cawnpore, Agra, and Itarsi, opening up to the ports of India the great native States of Gwalior and Bhopal, and the territory known as Bhandalkr&nd, a cluster of smaller States. The four lines meet at Jhansi, which bids fair to become one of the most important railway centres in India. It brings Bombay into direct communication, without the break of gauge which previously occurred ~ frt~ ~v.; . ■■ j mil mm > if-*' * ;i ' ' £^—&^fi W ill T:\ m* ■Hf- V 3« «1PII !I1 between Ahmadabad and Delhi, with the whole of the North- West, Oudh and the Punjaub. Whether viewed strategically or commercially, the I.M.R. is the most important extension of the Indian railway system for many years past. It will greatly assist the Government in the administration of the great cluster of native States now developed by its 700 miles of line, many of which have been more scathed by famine than any other portions of India. It is a 4 per cent, guaranteed line, and takes over two short State railways — Bhopel and Scindhia's — which are now part of its system. The country traversed by this railway has been practically a sealed book to the ordinary cold weather tourist, with the exception of Gwalior, which has 58 YOUNG INDIA. been accessible from Agra for some years. Now the beautiful scenery surrounding Burwa Saugor, the fortified palaces of Datia and Orchha, the sacred Jain Mountain at Sonagir, the memorable fortress of Jhansi, and the splendid Bhuddist monuments of Bhilsa and Sanchi, are brought within the compass of a week's tour. The traffic manager, Mr. W. B. Wright, was good enough to place a composite carriage at our disposal, to be shunted at will at any small stations, in which we have eaten and slept with great comfort, enabling us to save much time, and see portions of the line that would have been impossible to us as ordinary travellers. Although the line has been opened so short a time, Mr. Wright, who possesses great powers of organisation, has got every detail into good working order ; excellent refreshment rooms are opened at the principal stations, travellers' bungalows are in process of erection, or already opened, and next winter the comfort of travellers will be as well cared for as on any trunk line in India. ■ ti-m '■ i mm a GWALiOR FORT, FROM RAILWAY STATION. Except at Jhansi, where there are British troops and a host of railway officials, every place on the line is India, simple and unspoiled ; British veneer has not yet appeared ; the stationmasters and officials are natives, the conveyances waiting at the gates are country bullock carts and gaily painted ekkas, elephants, and even a modern carriage, in which two gaunt camels were harnessed — the funniest sight imaginable. Groups of peasants travelling on pilgrimage or in search of work squat about outside the station, generally arriving four or five hours before the time. Two or three dozen of these groups look wonderfully picturesque in the last fading light of the after-glow, sitting round charcoal fires, cooking the evening meal, at one of the smaller stations between Jhansi and Bhopal. The great fortress capital of Gwalior State, seldom visited by Europeans, is one of the YOUNG INDIA. 59 most fascinating cities in India. Lashkar, the modern town, is still a pure native place with wide streets, splendid houses of old Indian style, spread out from the gates of the vast park, six miles round, in the midst of whose greenery glitter the domes and minarets of Scindhia's two vast white palaces, his temple, and his family cenotaphs. The population is mainly clad in garments dyed in " Al," a rich warm orange peculiar to the district. The turbans are mostly Mahratta in character, crimson or dark red, and the women wear indigo petticoats and " Al " saris. I strolled through the city at evening bazaar ; the streets were alive with blazing colour, and the houses all decorated in honour of the Maharaja's approaching wedding. The crowd was the most thoroughly " Indian" I have ever seen — the brightiy-clad A STATE ELEPHANT. people intermingled with bull-carts full of gaily dressed nautch girls, camels and horsemen, elephants with gold-embroidered howdahs, and nawabs in fine carriages, escorted by armed retainers. The main interest, however, is not to be found in the gay modern city, a veritable page from the " Arabian Nights," but in the venerable fortress which has played so great a part in Indian history, the cock-pit of Central India, which has defied many sieges, and been stormed or starved out a dozen times over. It towers over the modern city on an isolated rock of yellow sandstone, 400 feet sheer from the plain— its natural precipices made steeper by scarping, its flanks covered with ancient colossal Jain sculptures, its plateau covered with noble buildings, dating from the tenth to the sixteenth century, whose towers, cupolas, and 6o YOUNG INDIA. domes stand out in strong relief against the sunset sky. The fort itself is reached by a winding road, a vast staircase of successive slopes and steps, half a mile in length, protected by a massive wall, and defended by six mighty gateways. At the top is the superb Man Mandir, a vast palace of sandstone 300 ft. long, the facade of which, towering 100 ft. up from its base, perched on the very edge of the cliff, glistens in the sunlight from every inch of its green and blue glazed tile decorations. The table-land on the summit is about a mile and a half long, and 300 yards at the widest part. It is covered with fine tanks of water and a succession of buildings beginning with the noble Jain and Hindu temples of the eleventh century, and ending with the homely and now deserted dwellings of Tommy Atkins, now ^V-S-,1 yU« n£T>cJe. SAS-BAHU TEMPLE, GWALIOR. removed to Jhansi. The two most interesting buildings are the Sas-Bahu, the cruciform porch of a vanished Jain temple, crowned with beautiful sculptures, and the Teli-ka-Mandir, a Hindu temple, both of which are in excellent preservation, carefully protected from further decay by the British Government. We were hooked on to the mail train at 9 p.m. at Gwalior, and dropped off the next morning at Bhilsa Station about six o'clock. There is no refreshment-room at this little by-station, and we were preparing to enjoy a frugal repast of biscuits and marmalade, when we were informed that Mr. Wright had sent us down two cooks from Bina, fifty-three miles off, who had lighted a fire on the ballast of the line to prepare breakfast for us. After doing justice to it, we started off for Sanchi, five miles along the line, on a little trolly YOUNG INDIA. 61 pushed at the rate of eight miles an hour by two coolies running barefoot on the rails. Here there is a small siding and station, opened a few days ago, and a large colony of ballast-breakers. We are now in the heart of the ancient city of Chaityagiri, which flourished from 400 b.c. to 400 a.d., its greatest splendour being reached under King Asoka, about 250 b.c. Tradition says that it covered an area of seventeen miles by six, on the tongue of land formed by the junction of the Betwa and Bes rivers. Scattered over this area there are still left, in more or less preservation, sixty-five individual examples of the remarkable TELI-KA-MANDIR, GWALIOR. architecture of the great Buddhist period of Indian history, of which the great tope of Sanchi is the finest ; it is probably the work of Asoka, so far as its best architectural features are concerned. The tope itself is a huge dome of brick, faced with stone, slightly elliptical, 106 ft. in diameter and 42 ft. high. This is placed on a circular platform, 120 ft. in diameter and 14 ft high, which, surrounded by a sculptured rail, made a walk for worshippers all round the top. The beautiful rail lies in fragments at the base, and it is a pity the Government do not erect and restore it as far as possible. The entire tope is surrounded 62 YOUNG INDIA. by another rail and four sculptured gateways ; it is superbly placed on the levelled summit of a beautiful hill about 300 ft. high. All round, on the wide table on which the tope is the centrepiece, are monasteries, gateways, statues, temples, and groups of huge monolithic square columns, that suggest the vast original proportions of this wonderful monument of the great faith which found its transient birthplace in India, and which still is rooted in the affections of a third of the human race. The beautiful rail which surrounds the tope was raised by "public subscription," and the names of the pious donors are inscribed in Pali characters on the stones of the different sections, an ancient custom still followed in England, where most M.P.'s, at any rate, are familiar with similar decora- tions around the outside of sacred edifices. But the glory of Sanchi is the four superb gateways by which the colon- nade is entered, which are decorated with a series of bas- relief pictures, which for bold- ness and vigour of design or delicacy of workmanship are unrivalled in the history of Asiatic art, and perhaps only outrivalled in the whole world by the frieze of the Parthenon. They cover the four sides of the pillars and architraves. They are a perfect panorama of the customs of the ancient Hindus. They are not, like every other ancient Indian sculpture,drawn exclusively from mythology ; they represent the every-day life of the people. Scenes from the life of Buddha himself, royal processions, battles, sieges, hunts, religious ceremonies, the exterior and interior of houses, apartments with their furniture, kitchens with cooks at work, YOUNG INDIA. 63 dances, gymnastic exercises — in fact, they form a complete series of pictures of the national and domestic life of the Indian people over 2,000 years ago. Situated outside the area of the terrible strifes following the Mughal conquest, in a remote and thinly-peopled country, this superb structure has been spared the iconoclasm of the Mussulman, and has not been treated as a convenient stone quarry for neighbouring cities. Undamaged by the dry climate of the country, the sculptures are as fresh and crisp as when they left the workman's chisel, the marks of which are still evident, even in the finest work. We visited one other tope only on the same hill, and spent the whole day examining the beautiful details, Mr. Allan making a careful drawing of the main gateway. Its influence upon me has only been equalled by that of the Great Pyramid and Stonehenge, but excelled by neither. I count these to be the three most impressive monuments of the dim and mysterious religious past that the world contains. My last remembrance of the A STREET CORNER IN BHOPAL. great Sanchi Tope is that of its solemn, sombre dome, standing out in dense, warm olive against the soft orange after-glow of the departed sun, with the clear-cut edges of the great gateway rising high into the sky as we slowly felt our way down the stony path, looking backward for last glances of a sight we may never see again, but never to be forgotten. As night fell we sat in our lonely railway carriage, dropped for us by a passing train, looking at the camp fires of the stone-breakers, and wondering at the turns of Fortune's wheel — the direct descendants of the citizens of ancient Chaityagiri, with its marvellous civilisation, breaking stones for threepence a day at the bidding of the descendants of the woad-stained worshippers at Stonehenge. We spent a day in visiting Bhopal, the capital of a native State of about a million in population, the ruler of which is a woman, the succession being in the female line. The Begam of Bhopal is the only remaining female potentate left in India. She is a purdah 6 4 YOUNG INDIA. lady, and never shows her face to men. She has the reputation of being an able and vigorous woman as becomes the daughter of the famous Begam Sikander, who furnished Sir Hugh Rose with a contingent of troops during the Mutiny, standing loyally by the British throughout, and whose last words to the British Resident, as she lay dying, were a message to Queen Victoria of " good wishes for herself, her family, and her throne." The present Begam married badly, and her husband, an Afghan, got her into disputes and difficulties with the British Government, but she is now a widow, and these troubles seem to have passed away with the cause. Bhopal is a handsome native city, on the banks of two beautiful lakes, one of which is dominated by the Begam's huge and tawdry palace and the old fort. The streets, houses, bazaar, mosques, and temples are very picturesque, but the people look poor and lacking in prosperity. From Bhopal we went on by night to Itarsi Junction, on the G.I. P. Railway, where we took a sad farewell of the nice little railway carriage which had been our home. A long and weary journey of thirty hours brought us to Chitor, whence to-morrow we drive seventy-three miles across country to Udaipur, the most beautiful of all the native capitals of India. < iH M NGE CHAPTER X. A Week with a Native Prince. — Bird Life in India. — The Indian Venice. — The Walter Hospital for Women. • HAVE spent the last week in Meywar, the oldest independent State in India, whose successive capitals of Chitor and Udaipur have played such a leading part in Indian history for the last 1,300 years. Mr. Allan and I have been the guests of his Highness the Maharana, who wrote to me some months ago inviting me to visit his beautiful and romantic capital, which lies in the heart of Rajputana, seventy miles from rail or telegraph. On arrival at Chitor Station shortly after midday, we were met on the platform by the Dak agent, who informed us that the Maharana had sent a carriage to bring us to Udaipur next day, and that we were to be his guests for the night at the bungalow, meals having been sent in by his orders. An elephant was also provided to take us up to Chitorgarh, the ancient capital, about four miles distant from the station. The modern town, encircled by a crenel- lated wall, lies at the foot of a steep rock, rising 500 feet from the plain, on the summit of which, a table-land three miles long and half a mile wide, are the splendid ruins of the great Rajput city, destroyed by Akbar in the middle of the sixteenth century. The precipitous edge of the rock is entirely surrounded by a line of embattled ramparts flanked by great round towers, and the summit is only accessible by one long winding road, defended by seven gates, now in ruins, but all hallowed by traditions of fierce struggles and deeds of valour in the many sieges of Chitor. In the thirteenth century Ala-ud-din, Emperor of Delhi, stormed Chitor, and 8,000 Rajput warriors died fighting along this mile of gateway, while their women performed the awful sacrifice of Johur. The subterranean rooms of the palace were crammed with combustibles, and all the women of Chitor, led by Queen Padmani and the Royal Prin- cesses, entered the upper rooms, burning themselves alive rather than fall into the hands of the accursed Mussulman, their husbands perishing in the last rally, leaving nothing but a silent city of the dead for the triumphant victor to enter. Between the third and fourth gates there is a small white marble cenotaph, which marks the spot where the famous Rajput heroes, Jeimal and Putta, fell sword in hand in another Johur, 300 years after, when Chitor was stormed by Akbar. The general commanding the defence fell covered with wounds at the gate of the Sun, and his post passed by right into the hands of his son, Putta, a lad of sixteen, whose mother and young bride armed themselves to fight with him, all three dying sword in hand in the breach. Jeimal, a Rajput chief, stepped into his place, and after prodigies of valour was fatally wounded by a ball from Akbar's own matchlock. He lived long enough to be carried back into the fort to order the terrible Johur. Every fighting Rajput donned the saffron dress, in which colour they never took or gave quarter, and rushed upon the Mussulman besiegers ; while thousands of their women, with nine queens and five princesses, made themselves a vast funeral pyre in the palace. The reigning Maharana, Udai Sing, had found a refuge in the forest of Rajpipla ; the scattered fragments of his army fled with him to the heart of the Aravali Mountains, where the present capital Udaipur was founded bearing his name. Akbar dismantled the great fortress of Chitor, and razed the city, which has been the wonder of India for 1,000 years, and nothing remains but mounds of rubbish, in the midst of which still stand some of the dilapidated but almost imperishable K 66 YOUNG INDIA. monuments of its greatness. The finest of these are the two famous towers of victory, some well-preserved Jain temples and later Hindoo shrines, with the palaces of Bhimi and Khumbo Rana. The oldest of these is the venerable Jain monument, called the Khowasin Sthamba, a remarkable solid, square pillar, 75 ft. high, 30 ft. thick at the base, and covered with sculptured fain figures, and inscribed with the date a.d. 896. The other tower, built a.d. 1430, is nearly Jtf£^mifnTi?;;,P7:irrci> INTERIOR OF THE MOUNT ABU TEMHLE. CHAPTER XI. History of the Congress Movement. |HE Congress movement is the first organised effort known to India and to the Indian people in which the whole population may be said to have combined to make an appeal to England. On many occasions meetings held in the various Presidency cities have addressed the British people, as for example in the 6o's, when Madras petitioned Parliament for reformed councils, and to- wards the end of the 70's, when a great meeting was held in Bombay, the precise object of which was to obtain reformed councils with an elective element. 1885, however, was the year in which, as we have said, the first combined effort was made. In March of that year a meeting of representative men was held, at which it was decided that at the following Christ- mas a conference composed of delegates from all parts of the Bombay, Bengal, and Madras Presidencies should be held at Poona. Partly as a result of the proposed conference, and in view of the General Election being held in that year, three delegates, one from each of the Presidencies, were sent to England to plead the cause of India before the constituencies. The great attention which their efforts attracted reacted upon the people of India, and as a consequence at the time appointed about 100 gentlemen from all parts of India assembled to discuss Indian grievances, and to suggest what should be done with regard to them. Owing to the cholera breaking out at Poona the meeting was held at Bombay, that city being then, to a much greater extent than at present, the chief political centre of India. Mr. W. C. Bonnerjee, of Calcutta, was elected President, and in the course of his opening address he briefly set forth the objects of the Congress under the following heads : — (a) The promotion of personal intimacy and friendship amongst all the more earnest workers in our country's cause in the parts of the Empire. (b) The eradication by direct friendly personal intercourse of all possible race, creed, or provincial prejudices amongst all lovers of our country, and the fuller de- velopment and consolidation of those sentiments of national unity that had their origin in their beloved Lord Ripon's ever memorable reign. (