Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVI THE GROWING UNREST Notw1thstand1ng Indian troops fighting the battle of the Allies in Europe, in Mesopotamia, in Palestine and elsewhere, in spite of the much-advertised "loyalty" of the great Indian Princes, and in the face of the persistent assertion of English administrators in India that dissatisfaction is a negligible quantity, there can be no doubt in the mind of any unprejudiced observer that India, like Japan and China, is awakening. The European is rarely popular: it is now being suspected that he is incapable. No doubt, with an unarmed population, an organised rising is no easy matter. But there are not wanting signs of discontent in the native regiments, and it is an open secret that more than one of the Indian Magnates, unable to move to-day and professing lip-loyalty with all the fervour of the Asiatic, is at heart deeply disaffected. Though the Indian Princes are, of course, in a very enviable position as compared with the rest of Indians, it is difficult to see how this could be otherwise. They will not move until they feel that success is assured. The Gaikwar of Baroda may give evidence of temporary independence at the Durbar of the King-Emperor; but he, like the rest, will not run a great risk so long as British India itself remains quiet. If Englishmen were wise in their generation they would begin to take account of what is happening in their own directly-ruled territory, and meet the growing difficulties without fear and without prejudice or tyranny. The hopelessness of overt resistance drives men to anarchy and assassination. Under Indian rule this was commonly practised. As Lord Morley, when Secretary for India, himself wrote: "Even the fiercest of Oriental tyrants ran some risk of having his throat cut, ...