science and education. It would, therefore, have been at least fair to state the sources of a statement which so unceremoniously takes the contrary opinion for granted.

The treatment of the unification of Italy appears the weakest point of the whole work, because more than elsewhere the author assumes success to be its own justification, and he obviously depends on one-sided authorities. It is by no means obvious that this unification was the result of the people's will; facts would far more easily establish the contrary view. The Encyclopædia Britannica itself shows that the leaders of the movement were revolutionaries very clearly if unscrupulously handled by Cavour. As early as 1848, Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia had begun gathering round himself those who aspired after a unified Italy as he expected to realise it for his own ends; and his Minister had all the astuteness

and Machiavellian spirit needed to carry out the idea. To assume that divided Italy was hopelessly governed, and that a proper government could only follow the unification, is to accept without evidence an argument of which the authors themselves were not convinced although they gave it out to justify their course.

The study of the growth and establishment of the German unity is more careful; yet even here the Emperor's policy of blood and iron might have been more severely stigmatised. In this connection I may add that, in the light of the present war, I should have expected the author to pass some criticism on the English foreign policy of 1870, which allowed France to be crushed by a race whose political ambitions were already notorious. A better grasp of the situation at that time would have spared England and the world the dire calamities of the Great War of to-day.

HE next Sessions of the Congress is to be the most momentous Sessions, and Lucknow has the fortune of holding it. A total transvaluation of the Empire as a whole and the different members individually is imminent. The large class of politicians-shrewd and cautious -who said the time for Home Rule in India had not come yet has been dwindling and is going on dwindling, so that it may be only a sullen whisper that would voice that feeling in the Lucknow pandal. In fact, if the administration of India be not reconstructed when the whole world would be reconstructed, the time for reconstruction may never come. There is again a legal ground whereon the Congress must ask for full measure of Home Rule immediately on the close of the war.

Every week or even every day we are hearing that the Colonies are going to demand a very substantial share in the management of the Imperial affairs of the War. That raises a very important constitutional issue. Supposing England concedes to the Colonies, who will be supported even by the Home-ruling Ireland, the right of sending representatives to the Imperial Councilas I shall go on calling it for the purposes of this article-it is improbable, nay impossible, that that Council should have anything to do with the local affairs of England and Wales and Scotland. There will, therefore, have to be a Local Parliament for the whole of Great Britain or separate Local Parliaments for England, Wales and Scotland. That Parliament or those Parliaments shall be concerned only with the local affairs of

Great Britain and will be entitled to send so many representatives to the Imperial Council. Which body will then be the Paramount Legislative Body? There is no doubt that within the Empire there can be only one Paramount Legislature from whom other Legislatures are to derive powers. Which will it be? The Local Parliament of England or the Imperial Council ? It is, I think, impossible that the Colonies that insist on having their representatives in the body governing Imperial interests should allow the Local Parliament of England to have supreme legislative power. Then the transformation would be something like this. An Act would be passed to give the franchise of returning members to the Parliament and to the Colonies. If need be, the number of the representatives of Great Britain and Ireland may be limited to avoid cumbersomeness.

The Parliament as constituted

The

after that Act would be what I have been calling the 'Imperial Council.' It clearly follows that that Parliament or 'Imperial Council' would be the paramount Legislative authority. Legislative independence of England in respect of her local affairs will be saved by the same Act. The net result of the whole arrangement would be that the authority to change the system of the administration of a particular member of the Empire would vest not in the British Parliament as it does at present, but in the " Imperial Council." When recently news came that the reshaping of India was a subject that was to be disposed by England in conjunction with the Colonies, there was a good deal of uproar. As I have however pointed out, that would be the inevitable concomitant of any reconstruction on the lines adumbrated hitherto.

This brings the question of a full measure of Home Rule for India immediately after the war directly in issue. We have taken many decades to persuade a few Englishmen that we Indians

may aspire legitimately to self-government; and a war was necessary to convince the British Public that India was really loyal to the British Crown and make it more generally sympathetic to the righteous demands of the Indians. `If now another master comes to have authority, it may require many other decades and even an equally devastating war to convince that new master of the same. Wars of this kind are neither desirable nor easy in their recurrence, and we may have to wait for another two hundred years and even indefinitely before another suitable opportunity may offer itself.

Another constitutional issue of somewhat lesser magnitude is the question of Indian migration to the Colonies within the British Empire. We find the Colonies so very untractable even at present when so far as political power is concerned, they are each of them on no better level than India. If, after the War, they become masters and, in that way, hold supreme sway, is there any child that would not understand what state of affairs would obtain? They may claim every advantage and foist on India every disadvantage in that line.

These two issues make it absolutely necessary that any scheme of Imperial reconstruction must inseparably have a provision therein of an unequivocal grant of a full measure of Home Rule to India. There is a great deal of noise over the appointment of an Indian representative on the Imperial Council. Whoever he be, immediately after the War if India is to be represented on an Imperial Council" such as I have written about, it is absolutely necessary that India shall have totally elective Legislatures. Looked at the question from any point of view, the only possible correct conclusion is that India must have the right to govern herself after the War. The Congress must, therefore, make a unanimous demand for it at the next Sessions,

66

ECENT research in Indian History has

been accompanied by many startling surprises. Shivajee, the great Maratha nation-builder, has been freed from the stain of Afzul Khan's murder; the Black Hole tragedy ad has been proved to be a hoax, and we now have evidence for vindicating the character of Nana Sahib. In a Persian work on the Mutiny entitled, Khanum-i-Inglisi dar Balwai-Hind which is a translation of a French narration of the sufferings of one Mrs. Hortestet during the Mutiny, the lady has the following to say about Nana Sahib and the Cawnpore massacre :—

For twenty days Nana Sahib had been besieging this General. The provisions of the English Garrison wers nearly exhausted, and the General himself was severly wounded. When he had been some days in the hospitial and found himself hard pressed on all sides and beset by misfortune, he was compelled to surrender on condition of being allowed to leave his retreat with all his soldiers and proceed to the bank of the Ganges where he would embark on boats previously supplied, which would take them safely to Allahabad. I shall not give here an account of the surrender of General Wheeler, as of course the chroniclers of events and historians must have narrated it in detail. I shall only relate my personal adventures. On the day we had to leave that hospital, myself and my children were placed in a covered cart and were sent in the direction of the river bank where many boats had been kept in readiness. As Nana Sahib had undertaken on oath that we should come by no harm, parties of soldiers were drawn up in a line on both sides of the road from the hospital to the river bank, while behind them, in an uninterrupted line, a great crowd of sight-seers from the town had taken their stand. They brought us safely to the river side, and placed us in the boats. As soon as the boats moved off from the shore and were in the middle of the stream, I offered up thanks to God that I was now clear of the storm of dangers and sitting in the ark of safety. The hands of enemies were now too short to offer me any injury or violence, while waters of the river had intervened between us and those contumacious people. But all of a sudden we saw the fire-raining cannon open on our boats from right and left, and large number of our companions were hit by the shells and breaches made in our boats. Our hearts were thrown into trepidation, and we were just on the point of being drowned when luckily the wind drove us to the shore when myself, my daughter and my little boy came out of the wrecked boat. No doubt, the particulars of this incident have been recorded by the chroniclers of these events. Myself, my little child and daughter dropped down on the sand by the banks of the river, and gave up ourselves to death. We expected

every moment that a blood-thirsty tyrant from among the rebels would attack vs and sever our heads from our bodies; indeed, my fear was so great that I kept my eyes closed. In the meantime, Nana Sahib with a number of officers on horseback came round, and with one sign of his all the swords went back into their scabbards. Nana Sahib placed us all in front and carried us to the city as captives. In number we were not more than hundred and eight persons both male and female. By his command we were placed in a building where the English officers in the days of security were wont to gather; and all the means of comfort and necessaries of life were ordered to be supplied us; but he strictly forbade us to leave the walls of our prison. This was the first time that I had seen this man. Whatever people say about him, it is their own affair; but in the massacre that took place, I hold him free from all blame, He looked to me a young man of thirty years at the most. He had an open face, a simple heart, a good disposition, and there could not be the least doubt if the rebels had followed his advice, this massacre and outrage would certainly not have taken place. The cause of this breach of faith was this: When General Havelock approached Cawnpore with the object of relieving General Wheeler, and while we were in the boats about to set sail to Allahabad, the powder-magazine that was in the hospital took fire all of a sudden without any cause being discovered. The Indians thought that a party of Englishmen, with the intention of continuing the fight, were still there and had not left the place, awaiting the arrival of General Havelock. It was for this reason that the order for our general slaughter was given, but when it was found out that we were innocent, Nana Sahib saved a good many of us who had not yet been killed.

During the fifteen days we were under his protection, we passed our lives very comfortably. But with all Nana Sahib's injunctions to us never to have any communication with the outside, some Englishwomen who could not give up their silliness and frivolity, kept up a secret correspondence. For a few days spies threw letters by fastening them to stones from outside into the enclosure and thus we learnt that the English army had defeated the Nana's troops and that the rebel sepoys would soon evacuate the town and make their escape. The next day a great noise was heard coming from town, and it was evident that a voilent disturbance and commotion was going on. At this moment an officer came from Nana Sahib, with instructions to carry before him four of those women who had communicated with the outside by means of letter. The officer took these women with him, but the instant they stepped outside they were cut down. Next, the townspeople attacked and surrounded our prison-house, and scaling the boundary walls found their way inside. The first to fall in their hands was a woman, slain by the sword of a Mahomedan soldier. This was followed by a wholesale butchery and slaughter.

The above vindication acquires greater strength when it is remembered that Mrs. Hortestet, on other occasions in her narrative, has shown nothing but heart-felt contempt for India and the Indians,

There is no doubt that the termination of the war will see a great advance in the ideals of government all over the civilised world, and especially in the British Empire, which entered into the struggle in defence of the liberties of weak and small nationalities and is pouring forth its richest blood and treasure in upholding the cause of justice and humanity in the international relations of the world, India has borne her part in this struggle and cannot remain unaffected by the new spirit of change for a better state of things, Expectations have been raised in this country and hopes held out that after the war the problems of Indian administration will be looked at from a new angle of vision. The people of India have good reasons to be grateful to England for the great progress in her material resources and the widening of her intellectual and political outlook under British rule, and for the steady if slow advance up to date.

Commencing with the Charter Act of India of 1833 up to 1909, the Government of India was conducted by a bureaucracy almost entirely non-Indian in its composition and not responsible to the people of India. The reforms of 1909 for the first time introduced an Indian element in the direction of affairs in the administration of India. This element was of a very limited character. The Indian people accepted it as an indication on the part of the Government of a desire to admit the Indians into the inner Counsels of the Indian Empire so far as the Legislative Councils are concerned. The numbers of non-official members were enlarged, with increased facilities for debate and interpellation. The Supreme Legislative Council retained an absolute official majority, and in the Provincial Legislative Councils, where a non-official majority was allowed, such a majority included nominated members and the European representatives in measures largely affecting the people, whether of legislation or taxation, by which Europeans were not directly affected, the Europeans would naturally support the Government, and the nominated members, being nominees of Government, would be inclined to take the same side. Past experience has shown that this has actually happened on various occasions. The non-official majorities, therefore, in the Provincial Councils have proved largely illusory and give no real power to the representatives of the people. The Legislative Councils, whether supreme or provincial, are at present nothing but advisory bodies, without any power of effective control over the Government, Imperial or Provincial.

The people or their representatives are practically as little associated with the real government of the country as they were before the reforms, except for the introduction of the Indian members in the Executive Councils, where again the nomination rests entirely with the Government, the people having no voice in the selection of the Indian members. The object which the Government had in view in introducing the reforms of 1999 was, as expressed by the Prime Minister in his speech in the House of Commons on the second reading of the Indian Councils Bill, on April 1st 1909, that it was most desirable in the circumstances to give to the people of India the feeling that these Legislative Councils are not

mere automatons, the wires of which were pulled by the official hierarchy. This object, it is submitted, has not been attained.

Apart from this question of the constitution of the Legislative and Executive Councils, the people labour under certain grave disabilities which not only prevent the utilisation but also lead to the wastage of what is best in them and are positively derogatory to their sense of national self-respect. The Arms Act, which excludes from its operation Europeans and Anglo-Indians and applies only to the pure natives of the country, the disqualification of Indians for forming or joining Volunteer Corps and their exclusion from the commissioned ranks of the Army, are disabilities which are looked upon with an irritating sense of racial differentiation. It would be bad enough if these were mere disabilities. Restrictions and prohibitions regarding the possession and use of arms have tended to emasculate the civil population in India and expose them to serious danger. The position of Indians in India is practically this, that they have no real part or share in the direction of the government of the country and are placed under very great and galling disabilities, from which the other members of the British Empire are exempt and which have reduced them to a state of utter helplessness,

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The existence, moreover, of the system of indentured emigration gives to the British Colonies and the outside world the impression that Indians as a whole are no better than indentured coolies who are looked upon as very little, if at all, above the slave. The present state of things make the Indians feel that, though theoretically they are equal subjects of the King, they hold a very inferior position in the British Empire. Other Asiatic races also hold the same, if not a worse, view about India and her status in the Empire. Humiliating as this postion of inferiority is to the Indian mind, it is almost unbearable to the youth of India, whose outlook is broadened by education and travel in foreign parts where they come in contact with other free races.

In the face of these grievances and disabilities, what has sustained the people is the hope and faith inspired by the promises and assurances of fair and equal treatment which have been held out from time to time by our Sovereigns and British statesmen of high standing. In the crisis we are now going through, the Indian people have sunk domestic differences between themselves and the Government, and have faithfully and loyally stood by the Empire. The Indian soldiers were eager to go to the battlefields of Europe, not as mercenary troops but as free citizens of the British Empire which required their services, and her civilian population was animated by one desire, namely, to stand by England in the hour of her need. Peace and tranquillity reigned throughout India when she was practically denuded of British and Indian troops, The Prime Minister of England, while voicing the sentiments of the English people in regard to India's part in this great war, spoke of Indians as the joint and equal custodians of one common interest and future. India does not claim any reward for her loyalty, but she has a right to expect that the want of confidence on the part of Government, to which she not

unnaturally ascribes her present state, should row be a thing of the past, and that she should no longer occupy a position of subordination but one of comradeship. This would assure the people that England is ready and willing to help them to attain Self-Government under the ægis of the British Crown and thus discharge the noble mission which she has undertaken and to which she has so often given voluntary expression through her rulers and statesmen.

What is wanted is not merely good government or efficient administration, but government that is acceptable to the people, because it is responsible to them. This is what, India understands, would constitute the changed angle of vision. If, after the termination of the war, the position of India practically remains what it was before and there is no material change in it, it will undoubtedly cause bitter disappointment and great discontent in the country and the beneficent efforts of participation in common danger overcome by common effort will soon disappear, leaving no record behind save the painful memory of unrealised expectations. We feel sure that the Government is also alive to the situation and is contemplating a measure of reform in the administration of the country.

We feel that we should avail ourselves of this opportunity to offer to the Government our humble suggestions as to the lines on which these reforms should proceed. They must in our opinion go to the root of the matter. They must give to the people real and effective participation in the government of the country and also remove those irritating disabilities as regards the possession of arms and a military career which indicate want of confidence in the people and place them in a position of inferiority and helplessness. Under the first head we would take the liberty to suggest the following measures for consideration and adoption :

(1) In all the Executive Councils, Provincial and Imperial, half the number of members should be Indians. The European element in the Executive Councils should as far as possible be nominated from the ranks of men trained and educated in the public life of England, so that India may have the benefit of a wider outlook and larger experience of the outside world. It is not absolutely essential that the members of the Executive Councils, Indians or Europeans, should have experience of actual administration, for as in the case of Ministers in England, the assistance of the permanent officials of the department is always available to them. As regards Indians we venture to say that a sufficient number of qualified Indians who can worthily fill the office of members of the Executive Council and hold portfolios is always available. Our short experience in this direction has shown how Indians like Sir S. P. Sinha, Sir Syed Ali Imam, the late Mr. Krishnaswami Iyer, Sir Shams-ulHuda and Sir Sankaran Nair have maintained a high level of administrative ability in the discharge of their duties. Moreover, it is well known that the Native States, where Indians have opportunities, have produced renowned administrators like Sir Salar Jang, Sir T. Madhav Rao, Sir Seshadri Iyer, Dewan Bahadur Raghunath Rao, not to mention the present administrators in the various Native States of India. The statutory obligation, now existing, that three of the members of the Supreme Executive Council shall be selected from the public services in India and similar provisions with regard to Provincial Councils should be removed. The elected representatives of the

people snould have a voice in the selection of the Indian members of the Executive Councils and for that purpose a principle of election should be adopted.

(2) All the Legislative Councils in India should have a substantial majority of elected representatives. We feel that they will watch and safeguard the interests of the masses and the agricultural population, with whom they are in closer touch than any European officer, however sympathetic, can possibly be. The proceedings of the various Legislative Councils, the Indian National Congress and the Moslem League bear ample testimony to the solicitude of the educated Indians for the welfare of the masses and their acquaintance with their wants and wishes, The franchise should be broadened and extended directly to the people, Mahomedans or Hindus, wherever they are in a minority, being given proper and adequate representation having regard to their numerical strength and position.

(3) The total number of the members of the Supreme Council should be not less than 150 and of the Provincial Coucils not less than 100 for the inajor provinces and not less than 60 to 75 for the minor provinces.

(4) The Budget should be passed in the shape of money bills, fiscal autonomy being conceded to India.

(5) The Imperial Legislattve Council should have power to legislate on all matters and to discuss and pass resolutions relating to all matters of Indian administration, and the Provincial Councils should have similar powers with regard to provincial administrations save and except that the direction of military affairs of foreign relations, declarations of war, the making of peace, and the entering into treaties other than commercial, should be vested in the Government of India. As a safeguard, the Governor-General-in-Council, or the Governor in Council, as the case may be, should have the right of veto, but, subject to certain eonditions and limitations. (6) The Council of the Secretary of State should be ablolished. The Secretary of State should as far as possible hold in relation to the Government of India a position similar to that which the Secretary of State for the Colonies holds in relation to the Colonies. The Secretary of State should be assisted by two permanent Under-Secretaries, one of whom should be an Indian. The salaries of the Secretary and the Under-Secretaries should be placed on the British Estimates.;

(7) In any scheme of Imperial federation, India should be given, through her chosen representatives, a place similar to that of the Self-Governing Dominions.

(8) The Provincial Governments should be made autonomous as stated in the Government of India's despatch, dated August 25th, 1911.

(9) The United Provinces as well as the other major provinces should have a Governor brought from the United Kingdom with an Executive Council.

(10) A full measure of local self-government should be immediately granted.

(11) The right to carry arms should be granted to Indians on the same conditions as to Europeans.

(12) Indians should be allowed to enlist as volunteers and units of a Territorial Army established in India.

(13) Commissions in the Army should be given to Indian youths under conditions similar to those applicable to Europeans.