Robert Herrick (1868 1938) - "Together"

E. P. Roe - "Taken Alive"

William Shakespeare - "The History of Troilus and Cressida"

Arthur Christopher Benson - "Where No Fear Was: A Book About Fear"

Under the Deodars

R >> Rudyard Kipling >> Under the Deodars





'The corn and the cattle are all my care, And the rest is the will of
God.'

Why should such folk look up from their immemorially appointed
round of duty and interests to meddle with the unknown and fuss
with voting-papers. How would you, atop of all your interests care
to conduct even one-tenth of your life according to the manners
and customs of the Papuans, let's say? That's what it comes to."

"But if they won't take the trouble to vote, why do you anticipate
that Mohammedans, proprietors, and the rest would be crushed by
majorities of them?"

Again Pagett disregarded the closing sentence.

"Because, though the landholders would not move a finger on any
purely political question, they could be raised in dangerous
excitement by religious hatreds. Already the first note of this has
been sounded by the people who are trying to get up an agitation
on the cow-killing question, and every year there is trouble over
the Mohammedan Muharrum processions.

"But who looks after the popular rights, being thus unrepresented?"

"The Government of Hcr Majesty the Queen, Empress of India, in
which, if the Congress promoters are to be believed, the people
have an implicit trust; for the Congress circular, specially prepared
for rustic comprehension, says the movement is 'for the remission
of tax, the advancement of Hindnstan, and the strengthening of the
British Govemment.' This paper is headed in large letters-

'MAV THE PROSPEEITY OF THE EMPIRE OF INDIA
ENDURE."'

"Really!" said Pagett, "that shows some cleverness. But there are
things better worth imi'ation in our English methods of-er-political
statement than this sort of amiable fraud."

"Anyhow," resumed Orde, "you perceive that not a word is said
about elections and the elective principle, and the reticence of the
Congress promoters here shows they are wise in their generation."

"But the elective principle must triumph in the end, and the little
difficulties you seem to anticipate would give way on the
introduction of a well-balanced scheme, capable of indefinite
extension."

"But is it possible to devise a scheme which, always assuming that
the people took any interest in it, without enormous expense,
ruinous dislocation of the administ:ation and danger to the public
peace, can satisfy the aspirations of Mr. Hume and his following,
and yet safeguard the interests of the Mahommedans, the landed
and wealthy classes, the Conservative Hindus, the Eurasians,
Parsees, Sikhs, Rajputs, native Christians, domiciled Europeans
and others, who are each important and powerful in their way?"

Pagett's attention, however, was diverted to the gate, where a
group of cultivators stood in apparent hesitation.

"Here are the twelve Apostles, hy
Jove -come straight out of Raffaele's cartoons," said the M.P., with
the fresh appreciation of a newcomer.

Orde, loth to be interrupted, turned impatiently toward the
villagers, and their leader, handing his long staff to one of his
companions, advanced to the house.

"It is old Jelbo, the Lumherdar, or head-man of Pind Sharkot, and a
very' intelligent man for a villager."

The Jat farmer had removed his shoes and stood smiling on the
edge of the veranda. His strongly marked features glowed with
russet bronze, and his bright eyes gleamed under deeply set brows,
contracted by lifelong exposure to sunshine. His beard and
moustache streaked with grey swept from bold cliffs of brow and
cheek in the large sweeps one sees drawn by Michael Angelo, and
strands of long black hair mingled with the irregularly piled
wreaths and folds of his turban. The drapery of stout blue cotton
cloth thrown over his broad shoulders and girt round his narrow
loins, hung from his tall form in broadly sculptured folds, and he
would have made a superb model for an artist in search of a
patriarch.

Orde greeted him cordially, and after a polite pause the
countryman started off with a long story told with impressive
earnestness. Orde listened and smiled, interrupting the speaker
at 'times to argue and reason with him in a tone which Pagett could
hear was kindly, and finally checking the flux of words was about
to dismiss him, when Pagett suggested that he should be asked
about the National Congress.

But Jelloc had never heard of it. He was a poor man and such
things, by the favor of his Honor, did not concern him.

"What's the matter with your big friend that he was so terribly in
earnest?" asked Pagett, when he had left.

"Nothing much. He wants the blood of the people in the next
village, who have had smallpox and cattle plague pretty badly, and
by the help of a wizard, a currier, and several pigs have passed it
on to his own village. 'Wants to know if they can't be run in for
this awful crime. It seems they made a dreadful charivari at the
village boundary, threw a quantity of spell-bearing objects over the
border, a buffalo's skull and other things; then branded a
chamur-what you would call a currier-on his hinder parts and
drove him and a number of pigs over into JelIno's village. Jelbo
says he can bring evidence to prove that the wizard directing these
proceedings, who is a Sansi, has been guilty of theft, arson,
rattle-killing, perjury and murder, but would prefer to have him
punished for bewitching them and inflicting small-pox."

"And how on earth did you answer such a lunatic?"

"Lunatic I the old fellow is as sane as you or I; and he has some
ground of complaint against those Sansis. I asked if he would
likc a native superintendent of police with some men to make
inquiries, but he objected on the grounds the police were rather
worse than smallpox and criminal tribes put together."

"Criminal tribes-er-I don't quite understand," said Paget~

"We have in India many tribes of people who in the slack
anti-British days became robbers, in various kind. and preye~ on
the people. They are being restrained and reclaimed little by little,
and in time will become useful; citizens, but they still cherish
hereditary traditions of crime, and are a difficult lot to deal with.
By the way what; about the political rights of these folk under your
schemes? The country people call them vermin, but I sup-pose
they would be electors with the rest."

"Nonsense-special provision would be made for them in a
well-considered electoral scheme, and they would doubtless be
treated with fitting severity," said Pagett, with a magisterial air.

"Severity, yes-but whether it would be fitting is doubtful. Even
those poor devils have rights, and, after all, they only practice what
they have been taught."

"But criminals, Ordel"

"Yes, criminals with codes and rituals of crime, gods and
godlings of crime, and a hundred songs and sayings in praise of it.
Puzzling, isn't it?"

"It's simply dreadful. They ought to be put down at once. Are
there many of them?"

"Not more than about sixty thousand in this province, for many of
the trlbes broadly described as criminal are really vagabond and
crimlnal only on occasion, while others are being settled and
reclaimed. They are of great antiquity, a legacy from the past, the
golden, glorious Aryan past of Max Muller, Birdwood and the rest
of your spindrift philosophers."

An orderly brought a card to Orde who took it with a movement of
irritation at the interruption, and banded it to Pagett; a large card
with a ruled border in red ink, and in the centre in schoolboy
copper plate, Mr. Dma Nath. "Give salaam," said the civilian, and
there entered in haste a slender youth, clad in a closely fitting coat
of grey homespun, tight trousers, patent-leather shoes, and a small
black velvet cap. His thin cheek twitched, and his eyes wandered
restlessly, for the young man was evidently nervous and
uncomfortable, though striving to assume a free and easy air.

"Your honor may perhaps remember me," he said in Englisb, and
Orde scanned him keenly.

"I know your face somehow. You belonged to the Shershah
district I think, when I was in charge there?"

"Yes, Sir, my father is writer at Shershah, and your honor gave me
a prize when I was first in the Middle School examination five
years ago. Since then I have prosecuted my studies, and I am now
second year's student in the Mission College."

"Of course: you are Kedar Nath's son
-the boy who said he liked geography better than play or sugar
cakes, and I didn't believe you. How is your father getting on?"

"He is well, and he sends his salaam, but his circumstances are
depressed, and be also is down on his luck."

"You learn English idiom". at the Mission College, it seems."

"Yes, sir, they are the best idioms, and my father ordered me to ask
your honor to say a word for him to the present incumbent of your
honor's shoes, the latchet of which he is not
worthy to open, and who knows not Joseph; for things are different
at Sher shah now, and my father wants promotion."

"Your father is a good man, and I will do what I can for him."

At this point a telegram was handed to Orde, who, after glancing at
it, said he must leave his young friend whom he introduced to
Pagett, "a member of the English House of Commons who wishes
to learn about India."

Orde bad scarcely retired with his telegram when Pagett began:

"Perhaps you can tell me something of the National Congress
movement?"

"Sir, it is the greatest movement of modern times, and one in
which all edvcated men like us must join. All our students are for
the Congress."

"Excepting, I suppose, Mahommedans, and the Christians?" said
Pagett, quick to use his recent instruction.

"These are some mere exceptions to the universal rule."

"But the people outside the College, the working classes, the
agriculturists; your father and mother, for instance."

"My mother," said the young man, with a visible effort to bring
himself to pronounce the word, "has no ideas, and my father is not
agriculturist, nor working class; he is of the Kayeth caste; but he
had not the advantage of a collegiate education, and he does not
know much of the Congress. It is a movement for the educated
young-man"
-connecting adjective and noun in a sort of vocal hyphen.

"Ah, yes," said Pagett, feeling he was a little off the rails, "and
what are the benefits you expect to gain by it?"

"Oh, sir, everything. England owes its greatness to Parliamentary
institutions, and we should at once gain the same high position in
scale of nations. Sir, we wish to have the sciences, the arts, the
manufactures, the industrial factories, with steam engines, and
other motive powers and public meetings, and debates. Already we
have a debating club in connection with the college, and elect a
Mr. Speaker. Sir, the progress must come. You also are a Member
of Parliament and worship the great Lord Ripon," said the youth,
breathlessly, and his black eyes flashed as he finished his
commaless sentences.

"Well," said Pagett, drily, "it has not vet occurred to me to worship
his Lord-ship, although I believe he is a very worthy man, and I am
not sure that England owes quite all the things you name to the
House of Commons. You see, my young friend, the growth of a
nation like ours is slow, subject to many influences, and if you
have read your history aright"-"Sir. I know it all-all! Norman
Conquest, Magna Charta, Runnymede, Reformation, Tudors,
Stuarts, Mr. Milton and Mr. Burke, and I have read something of
Mr. Herbert Spencer and Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall,' Reynolds'
Mysteries of the Court,' and Pagett felt like one who had pulled
the string of a shower-bath unawares, and hastened to stop the
torrent with a qtlestion as to what particular grievances of the
people of India the attention of an elected assembly should be first
directed. But young Mr. Dma Nath was slow to particularize.
There were many, very many demanding consideration. Mr.
Pagett would like to hear of one or two typical examples.
The Repeal of the Arms Act was at last named, and the student
learned for the first time that a license was necessary before an
Englishman could carry a gun in England. Then natives of India
ought to be allowed to become Volunteer Riflemen if they chose,
and the absolute equality of the Oriental with his European
fellow-subject in civil status should be proclaimed on principle,
and the Indian Army should be considerably reduced. The student
was not, however, prepared with answers to Mr. Pagett's mildest
questions on these points, and he returned to vague generalities,
leaving the M.P. so much impressed with the crudity of his views
that he was glad on Orde's return to say good-bye to his "very
interesting" young friend.

"What do you think of young India?" asked Orde.

"Curious, very curious-and callow."

"And yet," the civilian replied, "one can scarcely help
sympathizing with him for his mere youth's sake. The young
orators of the Oxford Union arrived at the same conclusions and
showed doubtless just the same enthusiasm. If there were any
political analogy between India and England, if the thousand
races of this Empire were one, if there were any chance even of
their learning to speak one language, if, in short, India were a
Utopia of the debating-room, and not a real land, this kind of talk
might be worth listening to, but it is all based on false analogy and
ignorance of the facts."

"But he is a native and knows the facts."

"He is a sort of English schoolboy, but married three years, and the
father of two weaklings, and knows less than most English
schoolboys. You saw all he is and knows, and such ideas as he has
acquired are directly hostile to the most cherished convictions of
the vast majority of the people."

"But what does he mean by saying he is a student of a mission
college? Is he a Christian?"

"He meant just what he said, and he is not a Christian, nor ever
will he be. Good people in America, Scotland and England, most
of whom would never dream of collegiate education for their own
sons, are pinching themselves to bestow it in pure waste on Indian
youths. Their scheme is an oblique, subterranean attack on
heathenism; the theory being that with the jam of secular
education, leading to a University degree, the pill of moral or
religious instruction may he coaxed down the heathen gullet."

"But does it succeed; do they make converts?"

"They make no converts, for the subtle Oriental swallows the jam
and rejects the pill; but the mere example of the sober, righteous,
and godly lives of the principals and professors who are most
excellent and devoted men, must have a certain moral value. Yet,
as Lord Lansdowne pointed out the other day, the market is
dangerously overstocked with graduates of our Universities who
look for employment in the administration. An immense number
are employed, but year by year the college mills grind out
increasing lists of youths foredoomed to failure and
disappointment, and meanwhile, trade. manufactures. and the
industrial
arts are neglected, and in fact regarded with contempt by our new
literary mandarins in posse."

"But our young friend said he wanted steam-engines and
factories," said Pagett.

"Yes, he would like to direct such concerns. He wants to begin at
the top, for manual labor is held to be discreditable, and he would
never defile his hands by the apprenticeship which the architects,
engineers, and manufacturers of England cheerfully undergo; and
he would be aghast to learn that the leading names of industrial
enterprise in England belonged a generation or two since, or now
belong, to men who wrought with their own hands. And, though he
talks glibly of manufacturers, he refuses to see that the Indian
manufacturer of the future will be the despised workman of the
present. It was proposed, for example, a few weeks ago, that a
certain municipality in this province should establish an
elementary technical school for the sons of workmen. The stress of
the opposition to the plan came from a pleader who owed all he
had to a college education bestowed on him gratis by Government
and missions. You would have fancied some fine old crusted Tory
squire of the last generation was speaking. 'These people,' he said,
'want no education, for they learn their trades from their fathers,
and to teach a workman's son the elements of mathematics and
physical science would give him ideas above his business. They
must be kept in their place, and it was idle to imagine that there
was any science in wood or iron work.' And he carried his point.
But the Indian workman will rise in the social scale in spite of the
new literary caste."

"In England we have scarcely begun to realize that there is an
industrial class in this country, yet, I suppose, the example of men,
like Edwards for instance, must tell," said Pagett, thoughtfully.

"That you shouldn't know much about it is natural enough, for
there are but few sources of information. India in this, as in other
respects, is like a badly kept ledger-not written up to date. And
men like Edwards are, in reality, missionaries, who by precept and
example are teaching more lessons than they know. Only a few,
however, of their crowds of subordinates seem to care to try to
emulate them, and aim at individual advancement; the rest drop
into the ancient Indian caste gr('ove."

"How do you mean?" asked he, "Well, it is found that the new
railway and factory workmen, the fitter, the smith, the
engine-driver, and the rest are already forming separate hereditary
castes. You may notice this down at Jamalpur in Bengal, one of
the oldest railway centres; and at other places, and in other
industries, they are following the same inexorable Indian law."

"Which means?" queried Pagett.

"It means that the rooted habit of the people is to gather in small
self-contained, self-sufficing family groups with no thought or care
for any interests but their own-a habit which is scarcely compatible
with the right acceptation of the elective principle."

"Yet you must admit, Orde, that though our young friend was not
able to expound tbe faith that is in him, your Indian army is too
big."

"Not nearly big enough for its main purpose. And, as a side issue,
there are certain powerful minorities of fighting folk whose
interests an Asiatic Government is bound to consider. Arms is as
much a means of livelihood as civil employ under Government and
law. And it would be a heavy strain on British bayonets to hold
down Sikhs, Jats, Bilochis, Rohillas, Rajputs, Bhils, Dogras,
Pahtans, and Gurkbas to abide by the decisions of a numerical
majority opposed to their interests. Leave the 'numerical majority'
to itself without the British bayonets-a flock of sheep might as
reasonably hope to manage a troop of collies."

"This complaint about excessive growth of the army is akin to
another contention of the Congress party. They protest against the
malversation of the whole of the moneys raised by additional taxes
as a Famine Insurance Fund to other purposes. You must be
aware that this special Famine Fund has all been spent on frontier
roads and defences and strategic railway schemes as a protection
against Russia."

"But there was never a special famine fund raised by special
taxation and put by as in a box. No sane administrator would
dream of such a thing. In a time of prosperity a finance minister,
rejoicing in a margin, proposed to annually apply a million and a
half to the construction of railways and canals for the protection of
districts liable to scarcity, and to the reduction of the annual loans
for public works. But times were not always prosperous, and the
finance minister had to choose whether be would bang up the
insurance scheme for a year or impose fresh taxation. When a
farmer hasn't got the little surplus he hoped to have for buying a
new wagon and draining a low-lying field corner, you don't accuse
him of malversation, if he spends what he has on the necessary
work of the rest of his farm."

A clatter of hoofs was heard, and Orde looked up with vexation,
but his brow cleared as a horseman halted under the porch.

"HelIn, Orde! just looked in to ask if you are coming to polo on
Tuesday: we want you badly to help to crumple up the Krab
Bokbar team."

Orde explained that he had to go out into the District, and while
the visitor complained that though good men wouldn't play, duffers
were always keen, and that his side would probalny be beaten,
Pagett rose to look at his mount, a red, lathered Biloch mare, with
a curious lyre-like incurving of the ears. "Quite a little
thoroughbred in all other respects," said the M.P., and Orde
presented Mr. Reginald Burke, Manager of the Siad and Sialkote
Bank to his friend.

"Yes, she's as good as they make 'em, and she's all the female I
possess and spoiled in consequence, aren't you, old girl?" said
Burke, patting the mare's glossy neck as she backed and plunged.

"Mr. Pagett," said Orde, "has been asking me about the Congress.
What is your opinion?" Burke turned to the M. P. with a frank
smile.

"Well, if it's all the same to you, sir, I should say, Damn the
Congress, but then I'm no politician, but only a business man."

"You find it a tiresome subject?"

"Yes, it's all that, and worse than
that, for this kind of agitation is anything but wholesome for the
country."

"How do you mean?"

"It would be a long job to explain, and Sara here won't stand, but
you know how sensitive capital is, and how timid investors are.
All this sort of rot is likely to frighten them, and we can't afford to
frighten them. The passengers aboard an Ocean steamer don't feel
reassured when the ship's way is stopped, and they hear the
workmen's hammers tinkering at the engines down below. The old
Ark's going on all right as she is, and only wants quiet and room to
move. Them's my sentiments, and those of some other people who
have to do with money and business."

"Then you are a thick-and-thin supporter of the Government as it
is."

"Why, no! The Indian Government is much too timid with its
money-like an old maiden aunt of mine-always in a funk about her
investments. They don't spend half enough on railways for
instance, and they are slow in a general way, and ought to be made
to sit up in all that concerns the encouragement of private
enterprise, and coaxing out into use the millions of capital that lie
dormant in the country."

The mare was dancing with impatience, and Burke was evidently
anxious to be off, so the men wished him good-bye.

"Who is your genial friend who condemns both Congress and
Government in a breath?" asked Pagett, with an amused smile.

"Just now he is Reggie Burke, keener on polo than on anything
else, but if you go to the Sind and Sialkote Bank to-morrow you
would find Mr. Reginald Burke a very capable man of business,
known and liked by an immense constituency North and South of
this."

"Do you think he is right about the Government's want of
enterpnse?"

"I should hesitate to say. Better consult the merchants and
chambers of commerce in Cawnpore, Madras, Bombay, and
Calcutta. But though these bodies would like, as Reggie puts it, to
make Government sit up, it is an elementary consideration in
governing a country like India, which must be administered for the
benefit of the people at large, that the counsels of those who resort
to it for the sake of making money should be judiciously weighed
and not allowed to overpower the rest. They are welcome guests
here, as a matter of course, but it has been found best to restrain
their influence. Thus the rights of plantation laborers, factory
operatives, and the like, have been protected, and the capitalist,
eager to get on, has not always regarded Government action with
favor. It is quite conceivable that under an elective system the
commercial communities of the great towns might find means to
secure majorities on labor questions and on financial matters."

"They would act at least with intelligence and consideration."

"Intelligence, yes; but as to consideration, who at the present
moment most bitterly resents the tender solicitude of Lancashire
for the welfare and protection of the Indian factory operative?
English and native capitalists running cotton mills and factories."

"But is the solicitude of Lancashire in this matter entirely
disinterested?"

"It is no business of mine to say. I merely indicate an example of
how a powerful commercial interest might hamper a
Government intent in the first place on the larger interests of
humanity."

Orde broke off to listen a moment. "There's Dr. Lathrop talking to
my wife in the drawing-room," said he.

"Surely not; that's a lady's voice, and if my ears don't deceive me,
an American."

"Exactly, Dr. Eva McCreery Lathrop, chief of the new Women's
Hospital here, and a very good fellow forbye. Good-morning,
Doctor," he said, as a graceful figure came out on the veranda,
"you seem to be in trouble. I hope Mrs. Orde was able to help
you."

"Your wife is real kind and good, ] always come to her when I'm in
a fix but I fear it's more than comforting I want."

"You work too hard and wear yourself out," said Orde, kindly.
"Let me introduce my friend, Mr. Pagett, just fresh from home, and
anxious to learn his India. You could tell him something of that
more important half of which a mere man knows so little."

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