riIlnQ£ki'ui,>iir INDIA AGAINST BRITAIN "iJli"iJLi"0lj"UP«il[?'i]I?«3C«aD«apqi[?qi|?ia[?q icO Cii£] Ciif] Did] CbiO C)c3 Did] CiiS Cid] CiiQ Cii'l GhD Did ggggggggggggggggggggggggggsKg gggggggggggsgsgagsgg — ____ Did Cbi£ PR: PR Ci£ P«I Cii£ pq: &£ n"x ad p«[ Di£ P": Ci£ pq: C]£ Pi: &£ PR] Qdl pic Cid] Cbd] PR] Cid] PR] Did] PR] Cid] PR] [b£] PR] Gi£] PR] Cid] PR] id] ?R] i£J PR] id] ?R1 i£l PR] Ci£] PR] Cid]| PR]| Ci£]| PRII Cidll PRI! Ci£II PRII C]d]| PRJI CxiDl PR] I C]£)i PRll B£lt PR![ &£][ PRJC Ci£lC PRIC DidJC PR3C CidJC PR3C BdlC PR]C QdDC Lm Chandra Editor Hindustan Gadar San Francisco California U. S. A. A REPLY TO Austin Chamberlain Secretary of State for India Lord Hardinge Former Viceroy of India Lord Islington Under Secretary of State for India AND OTHERS ?5 pin P«g P*D P^D pig P«a PR] PRl PR] PR] PR] PRl PR] PR] PR] tPRl PR3 PR] PRl PR3 PR] PR] PRl PR) PR] PR] PR] PR] C iaMCid3Q3Cid]Cb£l&d]Cid3Ci£JCi£]Did]CidlDidieid]Cid]CidlIid]&d3Cid]Cid]Ci£!BcDfbd3Cid]SSaSSflSSBSc ?S £S?S ?S?5 S"3 ?'S 5"9?'a F'a P'3 C'R] PR] PR] PRI PRI PR] PRI PR] PR] PRI PRj pta pq] PRI PR] PR] PR] PR] C ig Qg Q£) BdlCidl &d] Ci£l &£]&£] Qd] Qd] Qd Qd Qd] Qdl Bd] Ci£l Ci£l lid] td] Qd] Cid3 QdJ &£• Qd] SS qS SS SS^^ ?5 ?S?5£S S'S ?5 ?'S ?'a?^ P'*^ PR] PRI PR] PR] PR] PR] PR] piD PR] PR] PRI PR] PRI PR] PR) PR] PR] PR] PR] C ifl &£ Bfl Qfl Qdl Qd] Ci£l Qdl Ci£J Ci£J Bd] Cbd Qdl Bd] Ci£J Bd Ci£J Bd] &£] Csfl Bd] Ci£l Qd] &£l bS SS bS SS &fl C INDIA AGAINST BRITAIN A Reply to Austin Chamberlain^ Secretary of State for India; Lord Hardinge^ Former Viceroy of India; Lord Islington^ Under Secretary of State for India, AND OTHERS BY RAM CHANDRA Editor Hindustan Gadar SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA U. S. A. With Illustrations \ v-'\vw"-, Dedicated to the Martyrs Who haFve gi'ven their li^es for the freedom of India. Kartar Singh Gurdit Singh '- M Hh. ^ m pi ! y Kanshi Ram Amir Chand Rahmat Ali Shah Sohan Lai V. G. Pingle Jiwan Singh Jagat Singh Kehar Singh The above are among the 400 who have been hanged during 1915 and 1916. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Phi Phi Phi CONTENTS Page Preface 5 Answer to Austin Chamberlain — New York Sun 7 Answer to Austin Chamherlam— Springfield Republican 15 Answer to Lord Hardinge — New York Times 22 Answer to Lord Hardinge —American Independent 25 Answer to Sydney Brooks —North American Review 26 Answer to Lord Islington — Issue and Events 29 Hindu Princes —Boston Advertiser 33 Sir Francis Younghusband —Issue and Events 37 Answer to Daljit Singh —Spokesman Review 41 Tranquillity of India is the Tranquillity of a Prison— 44 San Francisco Examiner 44 Hindus Hanged. History of Gadar. The Political Parties in India 48 Looting by the British —Boston Advertiser 57 Reliability (?) of English Rule —Boston Advertiser 61 ILLUSTRATIONS no No. 1. Revolutionists Executed 1. Gurdit Singh 6. Sohan Lai 2. Kartar Singh 7. V. G. Pingle 3. Kanshi Ram 8. Jiwan Singh 4. Amir Chand 9. Jagat Singh 5. Rahmat Ali Shah 10. Kehar Singh 7to No. 2. Showing Envelopes bearing the Seal of "Martial Law" and ** Opened by the Censor ". no No. 3. Imprisoned for Life 1. Jagat Ram 7. Piyara Singh 2. Nidhan Singh 8. Sohan Singh 3. Prof. Parmanand 9. Besa Kha Singh 4. Jowala Singh 10. Inder Singh 5. Kesar Singh 11. Udaham Singh 6. Parithvi Singh 12. Mangal Singh PREFACE HE OUTBREAK of the European war was the signal for British Imperialists to inundate the world with a flood of false and misleading statements regarding the political situation in India. The world was told that India was palpitating with ''loyalty" to her British masters, and that British rule was regarded by her as a Heaven-sent blessing. The people of India had no control over Renter's or any other news agencies. It was impossible for them to prevent the publication of these statements, and they knew it would be futile to make protest at that stage with imperial authority. Before the European war was two months old, British soldiers had opened fire (Sept. 30, 1914) at Budge Budge- two miles from Calcutta— upon the 300 Hindus who had been refused entrance to Canada. Events now followed in rapid succession: The rebellion at Singapore, the rising at Ceylon, the series of guerrilla depredations in Bengal and the Punjab, the fighting on the Northwestern Frontier and elsewhere. But the world at large heard only very faint and confusing reports of w^hat was happening in India. "The Hindustan Gadar" considered it an imperative duty to place the truth regarding India before the people of the United States. The leading American newspapers and maga- zines, with their characteristic generosity and sense of fair play, opened their columns to the communications issued by the editor of the "Gadar" This, of course, chagrined the British government; the truth about India must be hidden from the civilized world at all cost. Austin Chamberlain, Secretary of State for India ; Lord Hardinge, who had just been recalled from the Viceroyalty ; Lord Islington, Under-Secretary for India; and a host of Anglo Indian sabre-rattlers, such as Colonel Sir Francis Younghusband, deemed it necessary to attempt to refute these communications issued through the American press. The more important of these replies have been answered. This pamphlet is a collection of some of the letters and articles published in the leading, newspapers of the United States, and will enable the reader to obtain a glimpse of the great endeavor the people of India are making in behalf of human freedom and social justice. November 1st, 1916. Many in India Revolt Against England Says Ram Chandra in Reply to Government's Report. Hindus Not Living ; Dying of Starvation." Declares Founders of U. S. Accomplished What Natives Seek To-day —The New York Sun, May U, 1916 The Sun printed last Sunday a despatch from London giving an interview with Austin Chamberlain, Secretary of State for India, who declared that the people of India ''have never heen more loyal than today." This is the Government viewpoint. The viewpoint of the revolutionists is given in the following article hy Ram Chandra, editor of the revolutionist organ, the ''Hindustan Gadar," published at San Francisco. Ram Chandra is the head of the radical party in India, whose watchword is "India for the Indians." The Hindustan Gadar is widely read in the Far East, but its circulation in India is forbidden by the British Government. By RAM CHANDRA. Momentarily the situation in India becomes more clouded. The political horizon has never been darker since 1857 and the whole country is seething with incipient revo- lution. This is the real fact of the situation. From day to day revolutionary happenings, assassina- tions, dacoities and riots occur on the one hand and arrests, executions, transportations, internments on the other; all are hushed up by the British censor, and when they cannot be hushed up they are explained away. Does anybody doubt this? Let him examine the official documents issued by the British Government itself. Some- times, months afterward, they chronicle happenings which at the time of their occurrence the world was told never took place! The Government put all India under martial law by leg- islative enactment on March 18, 1915. The Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, gave the following reasons for this drastic step: ''The Government was in possession of information which proved conclusively that a precautionary measure was absolutely essential to meet the emergencies that might arise. Some deluded men had during the last few months com- mitted acts of violence. In Bengal seditious activities, though not new, had become more daring. In the western Punjab there had also been looting and incendiarism and radical conflict. ''The Government had placed a number of the leaders under restraint, but further powers were necessary. The danger could only become serious if not checked promptly." Revolutionists Active. Also: "The powers asked for (under the bill) were necessary for the public safety. There existed on the Pacific coast of America a revolutionary organization which had endeavored to create trouble in India by agency of private communication. In Bengal seditious activities, though not new, had become more daring and the movements were not unconnected." (Speech by Lord Hardinge quoted in "India," London, March 25.) Austin Chamberlain, the British Secretary of State for India, says in his special lengthy statement that "A very active revolutionary paper has been established in San Fran- cisco, or some point near to that city. It was called the "Ghadr." "At the outbreak of the war this paper exhorted all Indians in the State or elsewhere to return to India and take up arms against British rule. German money may have backed it before the war. After the war began Germany surely backed it. The four thousand or five thousand return- ing Indians formed a secret revolutionary party, and in the towns and villages taught sedition and attempted to seduce Indian soldiers. 8 ''This revolutionary party was financed by violent rob- bery, its bandits raiding wealthy persons, sometimes holding them for ransom and committing several cruel murders. In the course of a month or two this organization was fully dealt with by the police and the Government. A special tribunal heard their cases. The proceedings in connection with this were extraordinary, being long and sensational, for there were over eighty defendants. Of these twenty-six were condemned to death and rather more than that to trans- portation and minor punishment. ' ' Mr. Chamberlain's surmise that German money may have backed our paper before the war is an echo of the British prosecuting attorney Petman's assertion at the La- hore revolutionary trial that the ''Hindustan Gadar knew three years ago about the coming war." We wish we had known it. It is a regular mania with the British Govern- ment nowadays that wherever there is found hatred or revolt against the British they attribute it to the Germans. By as- serting the implication of Germans in the revolts in India the British hope to persuade Japan to send her troops to India to help quell the outbreak. The facts about ourselves are well known, we are not plotters and have no secrets. All that we do is to educate our people regarding the blessings of national independence, political freedom and liberty. British Fear Paper. What Lord Hardinge calls our "private communica- tions" are none other than the issues of the Hindustan Gadar. In other words the British Government was more afraid of our educative and ethical propaganda than of all the "plots," which had been going on in India for the last ten years. The American people will recall that the founders of this great republic, who accomplished exactly what we hope to-day for India, were stigmatized by the British as ' ' plotters and seditionists. ' ' Mr. Chamberlain says, "As a matter of fact there is ab- solutely no sign of revolt in India. Reports of riots are with- out foundation." In answer to this I would like to know, if India is tranquil, why it is necessary to place the whole country under martial law ? Why was it necessary to abolish all ordinary civil procedure and place the whole country under military authority? Why did the Government estab- lish as early as October, 1914, a most rigid postal censorship, so that every letter going to or out of India is opened and many letters withheld? The open and delayed letters bear printed slips "Opened by censor" or "Opened under martial law." The newspaper and Government reports show that since the war 300 newspapers have been suppressed. Five thou- sand men have been arrested in Multan, 4,185 in Jhang, 300 in Lahore and several thousand in Bengal. The fact is that spontaneous outbreaks of the people have occurred in spite of, and partly on account of, the severest military rule in all parts of India. A notable feature of the unrest were muti- nies in several regiments, especially those stationed at Jhansi, Lahore, Ambala and Meerut. A pitched fight occurred be- tween the Bengal revolutionists and the military in Orrisa. As a consequence hundreds of revolutionists have been hanged at Jhansi, Lahore, Meerut, Ambala, Benares, Arah and other places. Country in Turmoil. Austin Chamberlain himself makes a guarded admission that the activities of the revolutionists threw the whole country into panic and turmoil. He says : ' ' There was some withdrawal of money from savings banks and other evi- dences of an unsettled state of the public mind." He also says that the report of the "Ghadr" that 5,000 professors, students, &c., were interned in India is without foundation. (This statement originally appeared in the New York Sun.) 10 -lil 4v ^% •*.»«»-»4|.\/ Showing Envelopes bearing the Seal of Martial Law and Opened by the Censor 11 Mr. Chamberlain thinks the public will believe him on account of his high official position. We can only say that our facts have been derived from accounts published in India's papers. At the present time nothing can be pub- lished in Indian papers unless it is approved by the authori- ties. In spite of this a Hindu paper, the A. B. Patrika, pub- lished in English at Calcutta, contains the following in its issue of February 22, 1916, which pretty well reveals the present situation: ''Not a week passes that we do not hear reports of fresh internments. This means universal unrest. The feeling of alarm and uneasiness has been heightened by the fact that any one may be spirited away. It is to be deeply deplored that the Government has not realized the amount of mischief which martial law is producing in the country. The more the list of deported is swelling the wider and more intense is the discontentment growing. ' ' A really important fact that the world does not know is that some of the Hindu Princes have been arrested for sedition. The brother of the reigning Prince of Daspala, Or- risa, has been sentenced to transportation for life. The Rajah of Kharwa, Rao Gopal Singh of Rajputana, has been imprisoned for two years. Mr. Chamberlain says: "Not a penny of increased taxa- tion has been laid upon India because of the war." In an- swer to this I will simply say that India is already taxed to the utmost limit of endurance. A Hindu peasant is forced to pay from 60 per cent to 70 per cent of his produce to the Government as land tax. Consequently, the Hindus have become so poor that the average annual income of a Hindu is twenty-seven rupees ($9), according to Lord Curzon, and fifteen rupees ($5) , according to Sir William Digby. A Hindu soldier, a school teacher or a policeman gets nine rupees ($3) a month. When invidious legislation and countervailing internal duties destroyed the Hindustan home industries 40,000,000 people were thrown out of work. 12 Hindus Are Starving. One-third of India's revenue is spent on armaments and less than one-sixteenth is spent on education and sanitation. If this is the case how can the Hindus live 1 The Hindus are not living — they are dying. Nineteen million died of famine and 15,000,000 died of plague and malaria, according to Sir William Digby, during the ten years from 1891 to 1900. Hundreds of thousands died in Bankura, Bengal and Rajpu- tana in the famine of 1915-6 ; 7,251,257 died from plague dur- ing the period of time between the years 1897 and 1913. Sydney Brooks, an English journalist, writes in the North American Review that ''The British Government neither suggested nor invited the employment of Indian troops on the battlefields of Europe. It was forced upon them by the repeated demands of the Indian people themselves." This is as untrue a statement as has ever been published and a simple reference to facts will prove its absurdity. The news of the declaration of war did not reach the Indian press until two days after the event. Simultaneously with the declaration of hostilities the Government issued strict injunc- tions that nothing should be published or said regarding the movement of troops or any other subject of military signifi- cance. The Indian troops received orders for mobilization and immediate embarkment on August 7. In other words, Indian troops had been ordered to Europe long before the people grasped the fact that war had come. When did the people have the opportunity to beseech the Government that their men should be permitted to fight? On the contrary, as soon as the question of recruiting arose the people opposed the movement stubbornly. Not only were there serious rebellions among the troops them- selves, as at Singapore, Honkong, Rangdon and Colombo, but even loyal newspapers wrote that recruiting was forced 13 " T" and therefore repugnant to the people. The Amarita Bazar of Calcutta wrote : "If India be self-governed under British protection the door to recruiting would not be so narrow as now." On reading this article Ramsey McDonald, M. P., exclaimed: ' ' The clouds are already gathering ! ' ' What about the magnificent devotion of the ''bejew- elled" Hindu princes, whom Sydney Brooks calls almost in- dependent allies of the British? Let no one be deceived. Hindu princes are not ''independent" potentates. They have less freedom even than the man in the street in India. Politically they are absolutely impotent and have to obey the British political agents and residents stationed at their courts implicitly in external and internal affairs alike. There are some 700 Hindu princes. Out of these only a half dozen went to Europe. Some of these might have visited the front. Two fell "sick" in London; all returned safely after spend- ing six months abroad. A theatrical trick to deceive the world. The same was published in Philadelphia North American, Detroit Free Press and New York Freeman's Journal. 14 DISLOYALTY IN BRITISH INDIA. Statement of Conditions There During the War. By RAM CHANDRA — Springfield Republican, August 11, 1916 Dear Sir: May I make use of the columns of your es- teemed paper to make a short reply to Mr. Austin Chamber- lain's statement, personally given by him to your London representatives, that all was well from the Indian point of view. This British statesman has ''posed" several times of late, for British and American public. He cites the authority of Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy. The Secretary of State sup- ports the Viceroy, and the Viceroy supports the Secretary of State, in their public utterances. What else do you expect? And yet from the speeches of this same Viceroy, and his most exalted colleagues, I can show that since the outbreak of the war, the British in India have been trembling with fear f o^* their safety. To cite only one instance : A farewell din- ner was given on October 8, 1915, at Simla, by British Civil and Military Officials in honor of the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge. In proposing the toast of the evening, Major-General Bun- bury, Quarter Master General of British Forces in India, said: Major- General Bunbury's Speech. ''Many decades have passed (1857) since last a Viceroy was called on to pilot the good ship of India through such troubled waters as those which have beset her course of late, when that course has been between the Scylla of external 15 and the Charbydis of internal trouble in steering clear of the rocks of anarchy and evading the submarine attacks of sedition. The end of the voyage is not yet. There may be breakers ahead and storms to be weathered." The reply of the Viceroy is even more significant consid- ering his habitual diplomatic reserve and smoothness of speech. Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy, responded and said : "You have referred, General Bunbury, in sympathetic terms to the difficult times that have been my lot. Well, it has been very hard, very hard I, the pilot, know that there may still be shoals to be navigated and further storms to be encountered before the good ship of State arrives safely in port." How serious the situation was on the Northwest Fron- tier, where the hatred of the British inspired the courageous and freedom-loving mountaineers of the Northern Border- land of India to throw themselves repeatedly at the English, may be gathered from the following words of the Viceroy in the same speech. Fighting On the North West. ''I need hardly remind those assembled here of the suc- cession of serious actions on our frontier since the outbreak of the war those who have taken part in them have been fighting the Empire's battles every whit as much as those who have laid down their lives on the bloody fields of Flan- ders or the Dardanelles." Theory of German Intrigue. ' ' Of course, " says Austin Chamberlain, ' ' there was some revolutionary activity in the country but that was due to the machination of the Germans. ' ' If the uprising at Singa- pore, to suppress which, with the aid of the Japanese and the freshly imported English Territorials, it took the British at least a week; the ''disturbances" in Ceylon which resulted 16 in the courtmartial of some 500 men (according to the state- ment in the British Parliament made by Bonar Law and Steel-Maitland) ; the countless political dacoities in the towns and villages of India, for committing which some 5000 men were sent up for trial in the Punjab alone and within a few weeks ; then that intricate net of conspiracy whose existence was proved by the certain developments leading to the arrest and trial by special tribunals under military law, of several hundred revolutionists at Delhi, Bonares, Arch, Meerut, Lahore, Fyzabad; the courtmartials of batches after batches of Hindu soldiers for participation in the revolutionary move- ment; then, the stubborn fighting which lasted throughout the year on the Northwestern frontier; if all this — and the list is not exhausted — ^was contrived by the Germans, they must indeed feel proud of their achievement. Unwittingly, Mr. Chamberlain pays to German efficiency and diplomacy the highest possible compliment. If "the sedition shop," which Chamberlain alleges is maintained in Berlin was able from such a distance to raise in India "the rocks of anarchy" and direct "the submarine attacks of sedition;" and conjure up those revolutionary "storms," which so far as the "English pilot can see" may still "have to be weathered" — then, the Kaiser has been amply repaid for its maintenance. Each of these lies and fairy-tales about India with which British ministers hope to mislead their own people, their allies and the neutrals, covers a wrong. Now, what is true and right about India ? The truth is that the entire Hindu people, from their primitive human subsoil to their highest layer of aristocracy, abhor the cruel, incorrigible British Bureaucracy, which ex- ploits and persecutes India in the most relentless and in- human fashion. Every increase in British prestige and power fills them with gloom and dismay ; on the contrary, at every blow struck at British military, financial or commercial power they rejoice. Unwilling slaves, they like to see their masters humiliated. 17 Why don't they all rise in rebellion? Aye, why don't all the Belgians and the Serbians rise up in rebellion? The traditions of revolt are worthily maintained by the Hindu revolutionists with whom go the good wishes of the entire nation and whose influence is ever on the increase, in spite of the swaggering optimism of Austin Chamberlain and Augustine Birrel. Loyal Hindu Scores Chamberlain. The Honorable C. T. Chintamani, a noted 'loyalist" and a member of the Legislative Council of the Governor of the United Provinces, makes the following comment on Austin Chamberlain's recent outpourings: ''Has Mr. Austin Chamberlain ever erred on the side of liberality? " Mr. Chamberlain told the House of Commons of the conclusive evidence of the unshakable solidarity of the prin- ces and people of India in defense of the Empire... that they have ranged themselves on the side of justice and liberty as opposed to the German theory of Government. The Eng- lish — since August, 1914, have indeed dinned it into us that while the Germans dearly love a perfected bureaucracy, Britons repose their faith in justice and liberality and na- tionalism. Mr. Chamberlain testified to the "determination of all classes and creeds in India to fulfill all possible duties of citizenship." Wherefore let our countrymen be recog- nized in fact as citizens, and not merely as subjects. The duties of the latter we have in full the subjection was there unquestionably where was the citizenship? Hindus in Subjection. The loyal paper Leader in its issue of September 26, 1915, says: The Government has armed itself with ex- traordinary powers of executive action against free speaking and writing persons may be deported without trial and without their offense being made known to them, and their property confiscated meetings may only be held with the 18 permission of the magistrate (which is only granted for a loyal ''demonstration.") There is the law of 1908 which em- powers the Government to suppress association; there is the crowning blessing of the Press Act, there is the Conspiracy Act, and there is the (newly-made) all embracing De- fense of India Act. ...The plain and simple truth of the pres- ent day in India is that candid Indian publicists exercise their vocation by the mere sufferance of executive authority and at their peril. The Indian press lives under a reign of discretion." (Terror is the word). The tale of British repression is long and cannot all be told here. Attention must, however, be drawn to the ex- tremely rigorous Arms Act, which has been in vogue since 1857. The entire population has been disarmed, so that it is as difficult for a Hindu to obtain a revolver or even a dagger, as it would be for an English suffragette to obtain Krupp cannons. The Irish volunteers have arms. If the Hindus had arms, or even sharp forks and knives, Austin Chamber- lain would have been telling this time a different tale. The mountaineers of the Northwestern corner of India did have a few old-fashioned rifles; and they did not fail to give the British a taste of "the bloody fields of Flanders or the Dardanelles," to use Viceregal language. Hindu Sinn Feiners. In its history of the war, glowing eloquent over India's ' ' loyalty, ' ' the ' ' Times ' ' of London says : "Just as Ireland still has her Sinn Fein extremists, so has India still her anarchists and her fanatical bomb- throwers." The truth in this statement is that India has her Sinn Feiners. The falsehood of it lies in the implication that the Hindu revolutionists are a forlorn hope of intransigients. They are not ' ' anarchists ; ' ' they are nationalists ; and hence the whole nation is and is growing to be, with them. Whether the Irish Sinn Feiners command any influence in Ireland to- 19 day is not for us to say. But we do insist that the Hindu Sinn Feiners today are as influential as the Irish were in the days of Eobert Emmett, and at the time of the American Civil war. Ireland has about 100 representatives in the British Parliament today, and the promise of Home Rule for tomorrow. India has not a single vote in the British Parlia- ment, and no sanguine outlook for tomorrow ; not the prom- ise even of a Duma. Hindu Soldiers. India takes no pleasure in the fact that her sons have been sent to be butchered abroad. The Hindu soldiers did not go willingly; they simply had to. Yesterday, they had to go to the Transvaal, China, Soudan, Thibet, Egypt ; today they have to fight against the Turks and the Teutons ; tomor- row they may have to fight against the French or the Jap- anese. Mercenary troops have no choice. They, like the other Hindus, are a brave people. Extreme poverty, thanks to British administration, has compelled them to sell their manly virtues — in order to earn $3.00 a month for wife and children. They are giving their lives, not for the British Empire, not out of loyalty to an alien oppressor ; but for the sake of their starving women and children. They are per- verted martyrs to domestic virtue. Hindu Princes. Austin Chamberlain calls Hindu Princes *' Independent Rulers." Shades of Dalhousie and Lord Curzon! And the rest of them! To call them 'loyal' and 'independent' in the same breath is jugglery. Princes enjoy less "independence" than do the English peers. Never forget, that when a Hindu Prince makes a donation to the Government, it is really the British Political Agent or Resident at ''his court" who makes the donation to the Imperial Chest. In all such mat- ters, it is the English Resident who rules from behind the scenes. The war contributions made by these Princes are in the nature of forced levies and have ruined the states. The Minister of Travancore (South India State) complains 20 of a "heavy financial deficit" on account of the contribu- tions made to the English war chest. The same is true of all other states. New Taxation for War. "We have never asked India for any monetary contri- bution to the Avar," says Austin Chamberlain. This state- ment is a downright lie. Apart from the fact that India was taxed beyond the limit of recovery before — fresh taxes have been levied specifically for this war. Forced loans have been raised, and in fact, no device has been left untried to squeeze out of the juiceless lemon any moisture left. Sir William Myer in his speech introducing the measure for new taxation in the Imperial Legislature Council, on March 1, 1916, said : "We renewed temporary borrowings to the extent of seven million pounds ($35,000,000) from the Gold Standard Reserve, and the Secretary of State did the same in regard to short term India bills to a like amount. It was also proposed that the Secretary of State should raise about six and one-half million pounds ($33,000,000) by fresh borrow- ing at home, while we were to issue a rupee loan of three million pounds ($15,000,000) in 'this country.' But all this did not suffice, so fresh taxes must be levied. Sir William continues, "We intend to get an additional revenue of (a) two million one hundred and fifty thousand pounds ($10,750,- 000) from customs, (b) six hundred thousand pounds ($3,000,000) from an enhancement of the duty on salt, (c) nine hundred thousand pounds ($4,500,000) from an increase under income tax ; or in all over three million, six hundred thousand pounds ($18,000,000) Our present measures arise only through the participation of India in the 'War.' The total revenue last year was eighty-two million, five hundred thousand pounds. This year it will be eighty-six million, one hundred thousand pounds. Is this a small in- crease in taxation for a single year? The same was published in Boston Daily Advertiser and Nezv York Freeman's Journal. 21 WHAT YOUNG INDIA HAS IN MIND. Rumblings of Dissatisfaction the First Warning That the People Have a Vision of a Republican Government. By RAM CHANDRA —New York Times, July 8, 1916 I have seen a report of a statement on the political situa- tion in India given by the ex- Viceroy, Hardinge of Penhurst, to your London correspondent. The English people them- selves do not accept this pronouncement at its face value. The comment of the London Daily News was : ''Lord Hardinge, speaking to a foreign audience, nat- urally does not dwell upon the details of the great problem which the Government of India in the future presents, * * * Any one acquainted with the startling development of politi- cal consciousness in India during these few months * * * will assuredly testify to the gravity of the task before us. ' ' "Speaking to a foreign audience" — which contains a strong infusion, too, of the descendants of England's enemies — the Viceroy was naturally anxious to magnify the signifi- cance, though there was hardly any, of the artificial ' ' loyalty demonstrations, ' ' and to minimize the importance, the wide- spread nature and the potency of the revolutionary move- ment. Lord Hardinge, indeed, stooped to grossest misrepre- sentation and perversion of well-known facts. For instance, he said: ' ' Of course there is a certain amount, though small com- paratively, of dissatisfaction and disloyalty in India. * * * But even so, this discontent is anarchistic rather than revo- lutionary. It has no constructive program. It represents a desire to tear down authority, not a plan to set up a new 22 authority. * * * The Gadar party, so called because of the paper of that name, which is printed abroad and introduced secretly, is frankly anarchistic." Now, as the editor of the Gadar newspaper, I repudiate in the most emphatic terms that the "Young India" party, whose organ Hardinge says our paper is, can in any sense be called "anarchistic." We are not anarchists, but repub- licans. That is why the British Government is in such fear of our purely ethical and educational work. Had we been ' ' anarchists ' ' we would have openly said so. We, who have made great sacrifices for what we consider to be the social truth, would not make any secret of our principles. Our plan is constructive, first and last. We aim at nothing less than the establishment in India of a republic, a government of the people, by the people, for the people in India. Residence in the United States has not made the Hindu laborers who returned home "imbued with revolutionary ideas" (Hardinge) anarchists, but it has made them repub- licans. The whole country has been profoundly stirred by their vision of a United States of India. Following the ex- ample of the Italian patriots of the last century, our party calls itself the "Young India" party. In support of my con- tention that the Gadar party is not anarchical, I submit a quotation from the opening speech of Bevan Petman, the Crown Prosecutor at the trial of some men of the "Young India" (Gadar) party before the Lahore Special Tribunal, (April 26, 1915) : "The aim and object of this formidable conspiracy was to wage war on his Majesty, the King-Emperor, to overthrow by force the Government as by law established in India, to expel the British and to establish "Swedeshi" or inde- pendent national government in the country. ' ' Lord Hardinge says, however, that he "succeeded" in India because of his "policy of mutual trust." But his deeds belie his words. Who does not know, by this time, that under no previous Viceroy was so much official repression and 23 coercion practiced in India as during Hardinge's viceroyalty, especially since the outbreak of the war ? Reviewing the five years' reign of Lord Hardinge, the well-known loyal paper, Amerika Bazar Patrika of Calcutta, says: *'When Lord Minto left these shores he, too, was lauded up to the skies by a few flunkies. * * * In his farewell speech at the Council he (Lord Hardinge) did not conceal his con- tempt for those who have raised the cry of 'Home Rule for India ! ' within a reasonable period. * * * Have not new fet- ters been forged during the viceroyalty of Lord Hardinge? What about the Conspiracy act and the Public Safety act, which have spread alarm and consternation throughout the length and breadth of the country? What about the police and C. I. D. rule, which sits like a dread nightmare on the breasts of the people? * * * What ghastly work has the Press act done during the Government of Lord Hardinge? What about the suppression of the Comrade and Zemindar newspapers and the internment of their worthy editors? What about the arrest of men and their conviction without a regular trial? Was the liberty of the subject ever placed under a greater danger than it has been during the adminis- tration of the present Viceroy (Hardinge) ?" Thus writes one of the foremost and recognized Hindu leaders whom Hardinge says he had taken into confidence. Lord Hardinge lets the cat out of the bag himself when he says: "Since the outbreak of the war all political con- troversies concerning India have been suspended by the educated and political classes, with the object of not increas- ing the difficulties of the Government's task." This is a diplomatic way of saying that the Government had com- pelled the "educated and political classes" to suspend all ' ' controversies ' ' in order to save themselves from any ' ' diffi- culties." The educated classes, thus gagged, turned to secret propaganda and conspiracy, as evidenced by the 24 formidable Benares conspiracy trial, in which the conspira- tors were all highly educated men, college professors, school teachers, &c., who had seen the ''hopelessness of accomplish- ing anything by constitutional methods. ' ' Regarding the fighting on the mountain slopes of the northwestern border of India, Lord Hardinge says: "It is true that during the last year we have had no less than seven very severe attacks from tribesmen just outside of our fron- tier." Lord Hardinge was the British Ambassador at Petro- grad during the momentous days of the Russo-Japanese war when the Russian revolution suddenly broke out, and he has evidently not failed to learn the methods of autocracy. The same was published in Boston Daily Advertiser. England Called American Revolutionists, "Anarchists". When the American colonists dumped the British tea overboard in Boston harbor rather than pay an unjust tax thereon. King George III wrathfully exclaimed that such anarchy in America must be suppressed. The arrogance and intolerance which marked the Brit- ish officials of that period has not materially diminished, which may explain the state of mind which prompted Lord Hardinge, former Viceroy of India, to declare in a recent published interview given to American newspapers that the present discontent in India is "anarchistic rather than revo- lutionary. ' ' The yearnings of the oppressed for a measure of politi- cal freedom always appears "anarchistic" to the oppressor. RAM CHANDRA. Reprinted from American Independence, San Francisco, Cal., Sept. 23, 1916. 25 IS INDIA LOYAL TO HER MASTERS? By RAM CHANDRA — North American Review, New York, June, 1916 Sir, — There is published an article by the pen of Mr. Sydney Brooks in the valuable columns of The North Ameri- can Review for the month of April. Mr. Brooks writes that "since the war, India has given us not one hour of real anxiety. She has been admirably tranquil, resolute and faithful. Some disquieting incidents, mainly fomented by professional revolutionaries who make their headquarters in California, have occurred, but there has been absolutely nothing to justify the alarmist rumors which occasionally find their way into the American press. ' ' This is absolutely false. The New Defense of India Act, which was passed into law by the Viceroy's Legislative Council on March 18, 1915, was put into operation before the Lahore conspiracy case began. A notification of the Gazette Extraordinary of March 24th directed that section 3 of the act shall come into force in the states of the Punjab, Northwestern Frontier Province, and Bengal, including more than one hundred million of the inhabitants of India, and gradually the operation of the act was extended until now it includes the whole of India. Prior to the arrest of a few immigrants returned from Canada and America, 4,185 men had been arrested in the district of Jhung, and since the Lahore conspiracy the arrest, imprisonment and execution of revolutionists have been numerous throughout the whole of India. Mr. Brooks writes that the trouble is fomented by "pro- fessional revolutionists who make their headquarters in California." The object of Mr. Brooks in spreading such misinformation seems to be twofold : First : To bring us, if 26 possible, into conflict with the authorities of this country. Second: To persuade the civilized world to believe that the political unrest in India has been manufactured artificially by the enemies of England or by a few Hindus who have lived abroad, and that it is not a natural reaction on the part of the people of India as a whole against the unbearable tyranny of the British Government. The truth of the matter is quite the reverse. The British in India are in peril. A correspondent of Indian a paper pub- lished in London, writes from Bombay that ''no Englishman is safe in India, and on this account English women are pre- paring to leave India." In the Lahore revolutionary case, which is being tried within the confines of the central jail, Lahore, before the special Military Commission appointed by the New Defense of India Act (which in effect establishes martial law) the Government prosecutor, Mr. B. Petman, says: ''In spite of the arrest of the majority of the leaders, the conspiracy continued, and further acts in pursuance of the conspiracy were committed. The police arrested 300, but nobody was willing to testify against them on account of fear of the revolutionists. ' ' Mr. Brooks states that the princes and the masses are fighting for their King. True it is that some Indians are fighting in the British Army, and a few have volunteered their services. But who are they? They are the Indian soldiers who are part of the British-Indian army in India, whom poverty has driven to enlist under the British Flag. As professional soldiers, whose interest lies in pay only, they are required to fight whenever wanted. Hence, when this great European war broke out, a large number of the Indian soldiers were shipped to Europe who were completely unaware of their proper destination. Some of them thought they were to be shipped from one Indian port to another, while others surmised that they were sailing for Africa. As regards the rest — who are, by the way, few in num- ber — they are the adventurers and place-seekers. Those few 27 Indian princes who are hanging around the British camp in France, those ''bejewelled" rajahs who are subscribing to the British war-relief fund and aiding in other ways: who are they and what are they? Always lying in the clutches of the tyrannical British, always compelled by brute force to follow at the beck and call of the British, and as such always subservient to the British caprice without any will of their own, and practically prisoners in their own palaces, these Indian princes have been compelled to unloosen the strings of their purses to help — as the Imperial mandate has said — a ''holy cause for humanity." Being always watched and suspected and never trusted by the British Government, and politically being absolutely impotent to exert any inde- pendent will of their own, these maharajas are doing what they are ordered to do directly or indirectly. The sentiments and feelings of the masses on whom the crushing weight of British rule falls heavily are not reflected in the actions of these hypocritical opportunists. The masses of the Indian people, hitherto inarticulate, are giving vent to their expression by other means, and gradually are mak- ing their voices heard, though hardly an echo of that voice reaches the outside on account of the British "love of justice and fair-play ! " At present their voice is entombed by the British censorship established to prosecute a war for "hu- manity. ' ' Everyone should bear in mind that out of a total of 700 Hindu princes, only five went to Europe. Only three of these went to the front; two fell sick in London, and after six months they all returned to India. On the other hand, two Hindu princes, the brother of the reigning prince of Daspala, and the Raja of Kharwa, one of the Rajput States, have been arrested for sedition. The first was sentenced to transportation for life, and the other to two years' imprison- ment. Two hundred interned Hindus have been hanged and shot at Lahore, Amhala, Delhi, Meeruth, Calcutta, Orissa, Jhansi, etc. Five hundred have been transported for life. 28 and 5,000 interned without trial, including professors, stu- dents, physicians, priests, editors, peasants, social reformers, and soldiers, during the year 1915. The same was published in New York Times in answer to Sydney Brooks and in San Francisco Examiner in answer to Justice Spencer of Madras High Court. A REPLY TO LORD ISLINGTON. By RAM CHANDRA It would seem as though British Statesmen are vieing with each other in perpetration of falsehood about India. One of the latest to ''pose" for the American public is Lord Islington, the Under Secretary for India. In his report of a special interview with this statesman, the Times correspondent says : ''Lord Islington did not suggest that any such measure of autonomy as obtained in Canada and South Africa could be granted to India. ' ' That must be presumably because the Hindus are in- capable of carrying the administration of the country. Strangely enough, however. Lord Islington claims that the entire subordinate staff of the administration is composed of Hindus and that some very high posts, i. e.. Judgeships of the provincial Supreme Courts, have been bestowed on the Hindus and the results of the policy are exceedingly satisfactory. This certainly does not prove that the Hindus are incapable of managing their own affairs. It proves, on the contrary, that while the routine drudgery as well as most of the intellectual work of the administration, is per- formed by the Hindu subordinates, the entire credit and the fabulous emoluments of rulership go to the British Civil Service. The raw English Magistrate drops in the Court 29 for a couple of hours, most times soaked in whiskey and soda, signs his name to a heap of papers, calls everybody around a few foul names, swears a whole lot and goes away. He gets for the repetition of this performance from Four Hundred to Two Thousand Dollars a month. His Hindu clerk, however, who works day and night, prepares all the papers for him to the last minute detail, gets from Twenty to Fifty Dollars a month. A Hindu getting One Hundred Dollars ($100) a month is considered as ranking very high, indeed. Such fat jobs are rewards of extraordinary clever- ness, devotion to the British Sirkar, a great deal of direct and indirect bribing to the English officials. Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that the majority of these Hindus, impecuneous, but highly intelli- gent, should protest against the present arrangement. Why should they do all the work and the ''Sahibs" get all the credit and the higher rewards. Who does not know in India, for instance, that while all the credit for the success of the Seistan Mission was given to the Commanding Eng- lish Officer, Col. McMohan, the whole arduous work was performed by such Hindu subordinates as Thakur Dass (of Delhi). Now, the legerdermain performance of Lord Islington consists in this, that he honours this system of exploiting the Hindu subordinates with the designation of "Hindu Self-Government. " Why not say as well that Russia en- joys a democratic constitutional form of government, be- cause the Cossacks with whose help the Czar rule, are Rus- sians themselves by nationality? The Hindu Princes "Indeed," says Lord Islington, "it is not always realized how far self-government has already been carried. . . . In the first place about one-third of the total area of our Indian Empire is under direct administration of the ruling Princes and Chiefs." Never was a more misleading state- 30 ment made. The casual reader would obtain from it the impression that the Hindu Princes have been gradually created by the British, since their occupation of India. The truth is the reverse. The Hindu Princes of the present day are mere shadows of their powerful ancestors. The Nizam of Hyderabad was once the most powerful Mohammedan Sovereign, whose alliance the British deemed it good luck to have secured against the French. What is he to-day? A puppet in the hands of the English. The rulers of Udai- pur (Hindu State) have been the proudest kings in India for twelve centuries. Their pride was humbled to the dust when at the coronation Durbar of 1911, the present ruler of Udai- pur was dragged, in spite of protests, to Delhi and forced to touch the feet of King George. What little semblance of self-rule the Hindu State still retains goes only to show that the British Conquest of India is still incomplete. The fangs of the oppressor are gradually tightening and not loosening on the Hindu Chiefs. Forty years ago the British officer who represents the English power at Hindu Courts was merely a sort of Minister or Ambassador. To-day, he is the real ruler of the State, the prince being merely a figure- head. Who does not know that when Lord Kitchener was in Egypt, it was he and not the Khedive who ruled over the country f The same is true of the smaller Kitcheners, called: ''British Eesidents at the Hindu Courts." How the exist- ence of partial autonomy in Hindu States could be cited in proof of Britain's anxiety to give self-rule to the Hindus, passeth comprehension. The Hindu princes have main- tained what little autonomy they have against the British by their own astuteness and frequent show of insubordina- tion. It proves that the Hindus still have plenty of political ability left in them. It does not prove that the British are gradually giving away their political control in India to the Hindus. Neither princes nor the common people in India are under any illusions on the point. They know well that the price of Liberty is continual Vigilance and that the more 31 trouble they create for the British, the greater chance they have of maintaining what freedom they still enjoy and of obtaining more. Rajah Mehandra Pratab Singh, who is reported to have joined the German army against the British, according to Anglo-Indian papers of India, was not granted a passport to leave India. This is an indication of the degree of inde- pendence native princes possess. The readers of the Times will remember that in my letter of May 22d, 1916, I referred to the imprisonment of Eajah Gopal Singh Rao of Kharwa, Rajpntana. The fol- lowing letter, showing how he had been treated prior to his imprisonment, was published June 3d, 1916, in the Bombay Patriot and the ''Rajput Gazette" of Lehore: ''In the Fort of Tadgah while I was interned without trial I heard that the police had besieged my Palace and searched it; that my estate had been confiscated by the Government; that my son had been sent away to some dis- tant place, and the ladies of my family had been placed under a rigid surveillance. I also heard that the Govern- ment was going to inflict on me the death sentence. * * * "My Palace was searched in the same way that a house is reached when it is about to be confiscated. The Police destroyed all my correspondence. My son was permitted to just write a note under the supervision of Mr. Phakey, an officer of the Criminal Investigation Department. Even then the Inspector of Police and his force would not desist from trying to enter the Zenana [the women's apartments]. "When my folks remonstrated the Police officer abused them grossly." "All our arms, cartridges, bullets, swords, even knives, were taken away. All our cattle and horses (I had some forty horses of the finest breed) were sold by auction. All my silver and gold ware were confiscated by the Govern- ment. All our jewelry, even the last ring on my Ranee's [Princess] finger was taken away. There was a chapel dedi- 32 cated to Krishna in our Palace, in which my folk worshiped daily. The British Commissioner forbade them to worship here and the chapel was closed." All this was done merely in suspicion. Later, the Rajah was brought to trial in the Benares conspiracy case and acquitted. However, he was again charged with having bro- ken the rule of interment by having on one occasion left the Palace where he was interned without giving notice to the Commissioner, and for this offense he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Reprinted from Issue and Events, New York, Nov. 7, 1916 and from Boston Daily Advertiser. HINDU PRINCES By RAM CHANDRA —Boston Daily Advertiser, August 15, 1916 Articles have appeared recently in the public press, conveying the idea that to give self-government and parlia- mentary rule to British India would produce disturbance in those states which are under native rulers, and that these rulers are really independent sovereigns, vassals to the British Crown only in the sense that they cannot wage war, contract alliances or carry on relations with foreign govern- ments, save through the suzerain power. Great Britain. The only disturbance it could create in these native states if universal suffrage were granted to Colonial India would be an agitation for the establishment of democratic rule in the native states. As the people in this country believe in democratic rule, they could not look upoil such agitation otherwise than with approval. As to the native rulers being independent sovereigns, as described above, I will give the following facts : — In the first place there are only two independent states, Nepal and Bhutan, which are located in the foothills of the 33 Himalaya Mountains. The population of Nepal is 2,000,000, that of Bhutan 35,000. These two small states have defeated the English three times and still maintain their independ- ence. The writers of the articles to which I refer, evidently had in mind what are called feudatory states. These states are semi-independent, but their rulers must do nothing con- trary to the wishes of the British Government. There is a British official called Resident or Agent located at court who has supervision of everything that is done by the Maharajas. As illustrations of the so-called independence of these Rajas and Nawabs, I will relate the following: Zafar Ali Khan, editor of a magazine in Hyderabad, the largest state in India, who was receiving a monthly stipend of 200 rupees from the Nizam, the native ruler, was thought to be a member of the Nationalist party by the local English agent. Consequently, the Agent notified the Nizam that Zafar must be deported from the state. The Nizam could not do otherwise than obey. However, he continued the monthly stipend. Later the exile attempted to establish a paper at Lahore in the Punjab province. After a few months publication the paper was confiscated and the editor interned without trial. He remains interned at the present time, un- able to write anything for publication ; the monthly stipend, however, still continues. Another interesting story illustrating the independence of the native rulers concerns the Maharaja of Kashmere, the second largest state in India. The infant son of the Maha- raja, heir to the throne and the only son, fell sick. The British resident notified the Viceroy, and a physician was sent from Lahore to take charge of the case. The child grew worse and when it was evidently about to die, the Maharaja wanted to call another doctor, but was not permitted to do so. Finally the Maharanee refused to allow the Government doctor to treat the child any longer. This was regarded as an affront to the British Government. The Resident summoned 34 the Maharaja to appear before him where he was condemned to pay a fine and to apologize to the physician. Moreover, he was ordered to discharge the Royal Chamberlain, the oldest and most trusted of the Maharaja's staff, but suspect- ed of having nationalistic ideas. The minor Nawab of Bahawalpore was ordered by the Viceroy to be sent to England for "education." It is well known in India what is the result of this "education;" how the young princes educated in England become saturated with British ideas and prejudices and only too often become corrupted by European vices, losing all feeling of loyalty to India. For these reasons and also because the young Nawab was not in good health, his old mother desired to keep him in India. Nevertheless the British official came and in spite of every protest carried him off. An appeal was made to the Viceroy who did not even send a reply. The mother sent several telegrams to King George, who finally replied that he could do nothing. So much for the boasted independ- ence of India's rulers. As to the lesser Rajas and Princes, I will simply mention the fact that Raja Mehandra Partep Singh of Brandaban, who is reported to have joined the Ger- man Army against the British in Europe, could not secure a passport to leave India (according to M. Munshi Ram, Gov- ernor of Gurukala, Hardwar, and Anglo Indian Press of Cal- cutta). The Raja was the founder and president of Brindaban National University (Prem Mahavidhyala). His paper, "Narmalsewak," has been confiscated, and his property has been taken over by the Government. The following notification is issued in the Gazette of India, Home Department : "Whereas, the Governor-General in Council, for reasons of State, within the Preamble to Bengal Regulation III of 1818, judges it necessary to attach the estates or lands of Raja Mahendra Partarb Singh, and being the son of the last 35 Raja Jhan Sain Singh Bahadur, and adopted son of the late Raja Har Narayan Singh Bahadur, now therefore, under section 9 of the aforesaid Regulation, the Governor-General in Council is pleased to declare that the estates or lands described in the schedule hereto annexed have been so attached, and to direct that the same shall be held and man- aged as provided by section 10 of the said Regulation." In spite of the restraining hand of England, which interferes with every effort the Hindus make towards prog- ress, more headway has been made in the feudal states than in the British India provinces. So far from fearing that to establish parliamentary rule in the provinces would create trouble, in the feudatory states, the situation is exactly the reverse. The first concession of this kind has been made in the state of Beekineer, where a parliament has been estab- lished. The Gaekwar of Baroda and the Maharaja of Mysore have already passed laws to establish free compulsory edu- cation. These are the things which are creating trouble in the British India provinces. The general feeling in India as to the difference between native rule and British rule can be seen in the following statement taken from an address of ex-Justice Chandavarkar of Bombay High Court, who has served as Prime Minister in two different states. The Jus- tice says : "When I was Prime Minister of the Indore State I was struck by an extraordinary incident. There were villages, side by side, some belonging to the Indian State and others to the British Government. The people in the State pre- ferred to remain where they were. I inquired into the rea- son of this strange phenomenon and I was told: 'We are largely left to ourselves ; we are not bothered with the round of visits from the police, now from the excise department, now from the revenue department, and now from the Depu- ty Commissioner. ' ' ' The Modern RevieTv of Calcutta writes : "The people like to remain under their Indian rulers, 36 because they are not over-governed, not interfered witk too often and thus have greater opportunities of managing their affairs themselves. In British India no sphere of human life and activity is proof against or free from the inquisitive- ness, meddlesomeness and vigilant watch of some official or other. They directly or indirectly meddle in all affairs — religious, social, educational, moral, political, or industrial. Such is not the case perhaps in India India." In a lecture delivered at York by Dr. H. A. L. Fisher, Vice Chancellor of Sheffield University, on January 31, the speaker states: "These states furnish one of the finest in- stances in history of the blending of western and eastern methods. Where they are well governed there was found an air of happiness and ease, and he ventured to think that the population, on the whole, was happier and more comfort- Such is not the case perhaps in Indian India." In one respect similar testimony is borne by Wilfred Blunt in his work on India under Lord Ripon when he says that 'Hhe subjects of the Native States are materially bet- ter off than the people of British India. * * * Educa- tion is more widespread in a few Indian states that in British India." A REPLY TO SIR FRANCIS YOUNGHUSBAND Who Says the Writer Has Always Tried to Stir Trouble Against British Rule in India. By RAM CHANDRA —Boston Daily Advertiser, October 10, 1916 Sir Francis Younghusband in an interview with the New York Times' London correspondent, published Ang- gust 8th, 1916, criticises my letter published in the Times of May 22d, 1916. Referring to my statement that two Hindu 37 princes had been arrested for sedition during the war, Sir Francis objects that these persons are not ruling princes, but merely landowners with the title of "Rajah," and accuses me with trying to convey the impression that they are to be classed as princes with power over States. I would like to say that in this respect I am in the same position as the British Government. The Prince who has been mentioned most conspicuously by the Government to illustrate the loyalty of the ruling princes in India is Raja Partab Singh of Idar who is reported to be at the head of the Hindu troops in France, is likewise only a landowner, with the title of Rajah. While there are of course only about forty reigning princes in India, there are in all some 700 with the title of Rajah. The 670 have had the title bestowed on them by the British Government because of their conspicuous wealth and influence, and further as a means of securing their loyalty. If the British Government is entitled to call attention to special instances of conspicu- ous loyalty on the part of any of these, I also am entitled to show evidences of disloyalty among them. The evidence is conclusive as to the two cases which I mentioned, seeing that one, the brother of the reigning prince of Daspala, has been imprisoned for life, and the Rajah of Kharwa has been condemned to two years ' imprisonment. I may also mention the case of Rajah Pratab Singh of Hathras, who is reported to have joined the German Army against the British in France (according to the Anglo Indian papers of Calcutta). Sir Francis also claims that the leaders of the educated classes are substantially loyal to the Government. In an- swer to this, I will say that the loyalty of India as a whole is the loyalty of a prison. As to the educated classes, the leaders of thought, it is sufficient to mention the suppression of nearly 350 newspapers and the confiscation of their press and property. Since the war began the Government began a campaign of house searches. No home, no matter how in- fluential its owner, escaped the attention of the police. The 38 residence of Hans Raj, the principal and president of the Dayanand Arya University of Lahore, was overhauled by the police in the most thorough-going fashion. His entire library — one of the most noted collections in the Province — was ransacked. Numerous literary and scientific volumes were taken away by the ''search party." The motor car of the Hon. Nawab Shams Ul Hudda was searched as he was going to pay a visit to the Viceroy at the latter 's request. The office safe of the Hon. Surendra Nath Banner jee. Editor of the "Bengalee," principal of Ripon College, the great- est Swedeshi orator, and strangest of all, a member of the Viceroy's Supreme Legislative Council, could not remain immune from the police scrutiny. How the common people fare at the high hands of the police when "big men" were thus treated, may be better imagined than described. Sir Francis denies my claims that four hundred Hindus have been executed, eight hundred transported for life and ten thousand interned without trial, and asserts that only forty-six have been executed, forty-two transported for life and three thousand five hundred and ninety-six interned. This is quite an admission. Prior to my charge not a single telegram came from England or India admitting officially that any one had been executed. Now that there has been an accusation made by my statements, they admit a fraction of the truth. Today they admit forty-six executed ; tomor- row they will admit more and eventually my assertion will be found to be true. Sir Francis says that only forty-two were transported for life. The official report of the trials at Lahore sho,ws that sixty were transported for life in the first Lahore conspiracy case and two hundred transported in the second Lahore conspiracy case. This makes two hundred and sixty, with- out mentioning trials at Calcutta, Ambala, Meerath, Hung, Multan and Ceylon, when hundreds more were hanged, shot or transported for life. In Ceylon, four hundred and twelve were tried before court martial, and eighty-three 39 had been sentenced to death, according to Bonar Law and Steel Maitland in the British House of Commons. If the disparity between the figures of Sir Francis and the other officials is so great in regard to those executed and trans- ported for life, it is evident that my estimate of those in- terned is conservative. I am reminded of the fact that the mutiny in Daspala State was not allowed to be reported in the newspapers of India until after four months elapsed. Not only is it a fact that news of England's entrance into the war was witheld (Sir Francis to the contrary, notwith- standing), but the death of Lord Kitchener was held back for two days and news of the naval battle in the North Sea for six days. The Indian papers such as Bengalee and Patrika vigorously complain of all these delays. In referring to my letter, Sir Francis says it was ' ' writ- ten by one of a group of revolutionary inciters, who always have tried to stir trouble against British rule in India" and he also says ''what the revolutionists leaders failed to do at the outbreak of the war they are still trying to do now— from a safe distance." This is an echo of the statement of Mr. Bevan Petman, Crown Prosecutor at Lahore revolution- ary trial that: "This conspiracy could not be separated from the 'Gadar'," * * * ''The idea of a rising in India had come into existence before 1913. In fact, it had originated in 1907, and the con- spirators included Har Dayal, Ram Chandra, Barkat Ullah and Bhagwan Singh. * * * Seditious literature pub- lished in and outside India. ' ' We very cheerfully admit all this, but we wish to em- phasize the fact that all we are doing is to preach Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, the birthright of every human being, and to awaken the world to a realization of the en- slaved condition of India, where these great principles are denied to all. The same was published in Issue and Events. 40 Blind Loyalty is Myth. By RAM CHANDRA Declares People Are Starving and Progress Repressed by British Rule. —The Spokesman-Review, July 16, 1916 I have noticed the report in the Spokesman-Revien?, Spokane, Wash., of an interview of the Sun's London cor- respondent with Sirdar Daljit Singh of the ''India Office" (London). Mr. Austin Chamberlain has evidently tired of the un- holy work of misrepresenting India and has turned it over to one of his Hindu grooms. Like 98 per cent, and more, of my fellow countrymen I hold the Sirdar in too much contempt to relish the idea of making a reply to him. But silence on my part may be misconstrued in the United States, where "India is still a land of mystery. ' ' Sirdar Daljit asserts : 1. That 98 per cent of the Hindus are "loyal" to the British. 2. That they are becoming more and more prosperous under British rule and 3. That the "oriental" has a peculiar penchant of personal loyalty to the ' ' sovereign. ' ' 4. That only "46" men out of three hundred million have been executed for political crimes in 1915 ; and only 300 interned. 5. Lastly, the Sirdar asserts that he knows his country- men well, having held various government posts. Says Statements False Now each of these statements is either utterly false or is, strangely enough, most damaging to the Sirdar's argument. The Sirdar says the agrarian population is growing more prosperous. If this be true, then there is a great hope for 41 the success of the coming revolution. Extreme poverty militates against progress. If it be true that education is spreading fast among the masses, then there is till more hope for the success of the coming revolution. Extreme ig- norance has been the cause of India's enslavement. Peasants Not Growing Prosperous Unfortunately it is not true that the peasants of India are growing more prosperous, in spite of the "irrigation works" of which Daljit Singh speaks. The Sirdar himself is innocent of any knowledge of economics or sociology, and has conned by heart a few sentences prepared for him by the British consulting economist of the India office. The 'irrigation system" is far too inadequate for the needs of the country. The land is becoming more and more impoverished, through intensive cultivation, and the entire economic rent, that is, from 60 to 70 per cent of the net land produce, is taken by the government as land revenue. Then this "land revenue" is subject to periodical revisions (settle- ments) which always result in an increased land tax. The British government in India is a "single taxer." "The land belongs to the government," hence the cultivation must give up the entire net produce. In governmental theory and practice, land revenue in India is not an income tax, but economic rent. (Ricardo, it will be remembered, defined "rent" as that portion of the produce of the earth which is paid to the landlord for the use of the original and indestructible powers of the soil.) Population Gets Steadily Larger Again, by a simple biological process, population in- creases but land does not increase in size. India is an old country where every inch of soil has been under intensive cultivation for centuries. An acre which yesterday barely supported four persons is required today to support six per- sons. It can't be done. 42 The only solution can be industrial development. But Lancashire and Manchester manufacturers are dead against the growth of Indian industries. There are in India, accord- ing to the last census, over 40,000,000 agrarian proletariat who are nearly always unemployed. They die like flies ever}/ week of each passing year, of famine and pestilence. The was has greatly increased the economic misery. Fresh and heavy taxes have been levied. Forced loans have been raised. Vast sums of money have been extorted from poor Hindu states. Hindu princes who have given fabulous sums to British war chest have after all obtained their wealth from their over-taxed suffering subjects. 0, the hor- ror of it all ! Daljit Singh refers to the innate ''loyalty to the sov- ereign" of orientals. I repudiate emphatically this ugly charge. Daljit Singh's slave psychology makes him think that we are all like him. No, we are not ! The people of India hate tyranny and oppression exercised by monarchs, landed aristocrats and British bureaucrats as much as any other unsophisticated honest people, accustomed from time immemorial to democratic communal life in their village republics. If there is any sentimental loyalty, it affords an- other proof of the evil nature of British rule. Loyalty to the war-lord, king, viceroy, or raja is medieval and barbaric. Now, of course, the whole story of British rule in India is this: About 200 years ago the powerful British medieval- ism succeeded in conquering the traditional Indian medieval- ism. British medievalism, then, and the remnants of Indian medievalism (representing Daljit Singh), are the great ad- versaries against which the people of India have to wage a fierce strife. 43 Tranquility of India the Tranquility of a Prison. — San Francisco Examiner, June 13, 1916 E. F. Shewring, prominent banker of India, at the Palace with Mrs. Shewring, is quoted in the Examiner of of June 3rd as saying : "That the unrest in India was mainly caused by stu- dents who have been studying in foreign countries and re- turned to preach sedition. ' ' "These men are all under lock and key, or have been executed," he says, "the unrest has died down and India is tranquil. ' ' Permit me to present, in contradiction to this denial of the revolt which is seething through all India, official state- ments from British sources, concerning outbreaks about which not a line has thus far appeared in public print. I refer to a recent mutiny in the island of Ceylon. The following is taken from the proceedings in the British House of Commons: Mr. McCuUom Scott (M. P.) asked the Under Secretary of State for the colonies "how many cases arising out of the recent riots in Ceylon were tried before court-martial." Mr. Steel-Maitland, the Under Secretary : ' ' The number of persons who were tried before court-martials was 412." How many of these were condemned and executed is not known, for the British censor has not permitted a line of this revolt to become known, although Bonar Law recently informed Parliament that eighty-three persons had been sentenced to death by the court-martials which were still sitting. I quote again from the proceedings before the House of Commons : 44 Colonel Yates: "As for Ceylon, the ghastly and terri- ble mutiny there was the result of sending out as Colonial Secretary a young elerk from the Colonial Office with only ten years of service." Sir J. D. Rees, asked whether there was any further in- formation regarding the suggestion that he had made that the recent riots in Ceylon, which had been of a rather seri- ous character, had their origin in German intrigue. Mr. Steel-Maitland replied: ''It is quite possible that German intrigue was at the bottom of the rising in Ceylon. As far as could be seen, whatever might have been the effect of German intrigue, that rising was a matter of plotting. It might have started on the anniversary of Buddha's Day. The rising took place amongst the Cingalese, who constituted two-thirds of the population. ' ' Mr. Bonar Law, British Secretary for State for the Colonies made the following statement in "The House of Commons ' ' on the Ceylon situation : "Martial law was proclaimed in the Western Province and the Province of Sabragama on June 2 and in the Cen- tral, Southern and Northwestern provinces on June 3. As far as I am aware these proclamations are still in force." Does this outbreak appear to have been only the work of "students who had been studying in foreign countries and had returned to preach sedition?" Martial law exists over all India. The press is muzzled. The censor rules supreme. The real facts of conditions are concealed as long as possible, and even when they cannot be longer concealed from the members of Parliament them- selves, they are minimized in every possible way. Thus, in his farewell address, the retiring Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge, said: "In Bengal and Punjab there has been a regrettable number of political murders and dacoities which dim the fair fame of these provinces." 45 " It is very well knoAvn that murders and dacoities were much more rife in the Punjab than in Bengal," writes the Patrika, a loyal daily in Calcutta. ''It is also a well known fact that the revolution is of a graver character in the for- mer than in the latter. Nay, if the official acts are to be believed, something like a second Sepoy Mutiny was con- templated in the Punjab." Again, the Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, Sir Michael O'Dwyer, when he could not hide the facts, said: ''It would be idle to disguise the fact that for several months we have had to deal with certain abnormal, but I hope transi- tory, features that occasioned serious anxiety to the gov- ernment. We have been confronted with a conspiracy or- ganized to subvert the authority of the Government of India, and especially in this province, and to pursue that nefarious scheme by murder and rapine, by use of the bomb, the dagger and the revolver. The prompters of the move- ment appear to have been inspired by the German policy of "f rightfulness." Their professed object was to terror- ize the administration, but their main line of action has hitherto been to rob, and in some cases to murder, to pro- vide funds for their war chest. "But while we are busily employed in checking this dangerous movement in the central Punjab, another storm burst in an unexpected quarter. In the districts of the Southwestern Punjab a section of the Mohammedan rural population, agriculturists and menials, took advantage of the panic to begin a campaign of lawlessness and looting combined with arson. The dacoities, while they lasted, were very serious. a ^ * # rpj^g spirit of disorder spread with amazing rapidity over the south of Jhang within a few weeks, before the police force on these remote and hitherto orderly tracts could be strengthened sufficiently to cope with all the dacoit bands. Over 1000 arrests have been made in the three dis- tricts (Jhang, Mazaffergawh and Multan) alone." 46 No seditious students or America returned laborers but India's rural population revolted in ''this unexpected quar- ter." In Singapore, where the outbreak was more serious than elsewhere, the Hindu soldiers revolted. One regiment that mutinied was the Fifth Light Infantry, a regiment recruited mainly in districts not far from Delhi. The regi- ment attacked its commanding officers, and the fighting con- tinued three days. Fifty of the rioters were killed. The soldiers fired upon every Englishman they saw, as revealed in a discussion of the outbreak by Mr. Gersham Stewart in the House of Commons recently. He says : ''Five mutineers walking a road said to a colonist: 'Are you English?' and he said, 'No, I am Irish,' and they said, ' ' let him pass. ' The mutineers were not out to loot, because they left untenanted houses alone and they shot Englishmen in houses where Dutchmen were close by. Their attack, therefore, was certainly, levelled against British power and British people. It was worthy of notice that the mutineers went to the internment camp and after shooting down the guards, broke open the gates and flung in rifles to Germans, calling out : ' German ! German ! Islam ! Islam ! ' " Ceylon, the Punjab, Singapore! These places are far apart. Cingalese, Hindu agriculturists, soldiers from Delhi! Can it be true, in the face of these admissions by the British officials, and members of the House of Commons, that the unrest in India was due to a few students or labor- ers who had returned from foreign countries to preach sedi- tion, and has not been quieted? The Ner» York Sun quotes Lord Hardinge as saying that political controversies concerning India have been sus- pended by the educated class. In regard to this it must not be forgotten that martial law prevails in India and that more than 350 newspapers have been confiscated and their leaders interned. "Tranquillity" of this sort is not good evidence of loyalty. Lord Hardinge 's statement is quoted 47 that "no fewer than 300,000 men were sent out of the coun- try to Imperial battlefields." He does not state, however, how many English and Colonial troops have been sent to India in their place. We know it to be a fact that several Canadian officers have been killed in the conflict on the Northwestern Frontier. The tranquillity of India is the tranquillity of a prison. RAM CHANDRA. The same was published in Issue and Events. HINDUS HANGED History of Hindustan Gadar. Political Parties in India. By RAM CHANDRA The India described in the British official dispatches is not the real India. She is neither "loyal" nor "tranquil." India is seeking its way to complete independence, even though that way lies through bloodshed and insurrection. The agitation against the British Government has grown tremendously since the outbreak of the European war. Nei- ther did the Government begin in a conciliatory mood. The authorities took steps, immediately the war began, which resulted in the suppression of nearly 350 newspapers and the confiscation of their presses and property. The people took to publishing newspapers secretly and to organizing con- spiracies. The Government began a campaign of house to house searches. No home, no matter how influential its owner, escaped the attention of the police. The residence of Hans Raj, the saintly principal and president of the Dayanand Arya University of Lahore, was overhauled by the police in the most thoroughgoing fashion. His entire library — one of the most noted collections in the Province — was ransacked. Numerous literary and scientific volumes 48 were taken away by the ''search party." The motor car of the Hon. Nawab Shams Ul Hudda was searched as he was going to pay a visit to the Viceroy at the latter 's request. The office safe of the Hon. Surendra Nath Banner jee, Editor of the "Bengalee," principal of Ripon College, the greatest Swedeshi orator, and strangest of all, a member of the Vice- roy's Supreme Legislative Council, could not remain im- mune from police scrutiny. How the common people fared at the high hands of the police when "big men" were thus treated, may be better imagined than described. The Amrita Bazar Patrika of Calcutta, writes the following in a in a recent issue : "We have been crying and crying till our voice has be- come hoarse for putting a check to the indiscriminate search of houses by the police. But they come, they come, still they come." The people in their rising wrath soon began a "reign of terror," to correspond with that of the Government. In rapid succession followed wholesale looting, dacoities, riots, mutinies (in the native Army) murders of police and officers, of English civilians and military, and particularly of "loyal" Hindus. The Government began a policy of wholesale ar- rests. The regular judicial procedure was suspended (as early as March, 1915). Anyone towards whom the Govern- ment entertained the slightest suspicion was "interned" by executive mandate. Special tribunals, consisting of three military officers in most cases, were instituted for the trial of "political offenses." No appeal was possible from the decisions of these courts which held their proceedings in camera. That these special tribunals were kept busy may be understood from the' fact that in less than a year some 400 men were sent to the gallows, about 800 imprisoned for life with hard labor, and some ten thousand "interned" by direct executive order, i. e., without any judicial procedure whatever. 49 American Returned Revolutionists Some of the Hindus who had been residents in the United States returned to India at the beginning of the war. They were arrested and hanged or imprisoned for life. The prominent among them were the following : Kartar Singh, Hindu aviator, who learned the art of aviation in "New York, hanged. According to Mr. Petman, the Crown Prosecutor, Kartar Singh was on the staff of the Hindustan Gadar of San Francisco ; made bombs and explo- sives, organized political riots and dacoities and helped to carry them out. An active revolutionary, he designed a flag for his fellow conspirators which was to typify an India free from British rule. Kanshi Ram, contractor in Oregon, U. S. A. According to Mr. Petman, plotted for the ''removal" of several police officials in Frozepore, gave $1000 to the Hindustan Gadar of San Francisco, and took $10,000 to India with him to help finance the revolution against the English rule. The money was confiscated and Kanshi Ram hanged. Nidhan Singh lived for 20 years in China and America where he was regarded as a very influential man. According to the Crown Prosecutor, Nidhan Singh successfully got arms into India from China after the outbreak of the war; plotted several dacoities and outbreaks ; organized and took part in looting the British Treasury of Moga, Punjab — sen- tenced to penal servitude for life. Solian Singh, a great religious leader. Lived five years in Oregon, U. S. A. — charged with giving support to the Hindustan Gadar — sentenced to death (commuted to life imprisonment). Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, a student at Washington Uni- versity, Seattle; according to the Prosecutor Petman, was arrested while inciting a native regiment to revolt. Had in possession several bombs. Hanged. 50 Jagat Ram Nidhan Singh Prof. Parmanand Jk ■1 Mk Jowala Singh Kesar Singh Parithvi Singh Piyara Singh Sohan Singh .^^V ^^^H ^^^^-« Jr ^ Besa Kha Singh Inder Singh Udaham Singh Mangal Singh The above are among the 5000 who have been imprisoned for life during 1915 and 1916. Sohan Lai, a student at Corvallis Agricultural College, Corvallis, Oregon, arrested with two loaded revolvers and Gradar literature. Sohan Lai was a school teacher in India before coming to the United States. Hanged. Gurdit Singh, leader of 400 Hindus who came on the steamer Kamagata Maru to Canada. They were all refused landing and were turned back to India. At Calcutta they were fired upon by British soldiers. Several were killed. The fate of Gurdit Singh is not known, probably shot. Kehar Singh; so severely beaten by the police that he died in jail. Professor Bhai Parmanand, of the University of the Punjab, Lahore, educated at Cambridge, England, student of medicine in the University of California, supposed to be a revolutionary leader. Sentenced to be hanged, but on account of his popularity which would have doubtless led to serious trouble for the Government, the sentence was com- muted to imprisonment for life in the Andaman Islands. Kesar Singh, ex-British soldier, veteran of Malakand and China, well known in Oregon, imprisoned for life. Jawala Singh and Besakha Singh, well known wealthy ranchmen near Stockton, lived 15 years in California, and Inder Singh, priest; penal servitude for life. (Charged with being supporters of the Hindustar Gadar.) Peyara Singh, very popular among the Hindus in Van- couver, B. C. Life imprisonment. Jagat Ram, formerly a member of the Hindustan Gadar staff, found with several thousand dollars when arrested, for purchasing arms; sentenced to be hanged (afterwards commuted to imprisonment for life). Having learned that a few Hindus from California were among the revolutionists who have been hanged in India, many people seem to take it for granted that the revolt in India was ''hatched" in the United States. This is not true. The Hindus who returned from America were but a few out of many hundreds hanged and imprisoned. It was natural 51 that men who came in contact with the republican institu- tions of America should have been readily caught up in the revolutionary maelstrom. But to hold them responsi- ble for the vast unrest in the country would be absurd. None of the leaders of the Delhi conspiracy, for instance, who suffered the extreme penalty had ever been out of India. They were : Amir Chand, eldest son of Rai Hukum Chand, the cele- brated Hindu jurist and High Court Judge in the Hydrabad Deccan, head master of the Mission High School at Delhi, an educator and social reformer of Northern India for the last thirty years; hanged. Abad Bihari Lai, B. A., B. T., head master of the Hindu High School at Delhi, a noted mathematician of the Punjab University ; hanged. Bal Mukand, B. A., the tutor of the Raja Sir Pirtab Singh of Idar's sons and head of the Famine Relief Society of the Punjab ; hanged. Bisant Kumar, a prominent Lahore physician; hanged. Hanwant Sahai, banker and proprietor of the Lakshimi cotton and silk handloom factory, Delhi; imprisonment for life. Bal-Raj (M. A.) eldest son of Hans Raj, president of Dayanand Anglo Vedic University. Imprisonment for life. The sensational and epoch making conflict between the active revolutionists and the British Government is going on with sustained intensity. It has come to light in one of the latest conspiracy trials that some of the wounded Hindu soldiers joined the rebels on their return from the European battlefields. The revolt has spread among the highest no- bility and aristocracy of the land. Among those who have been declared rebels by the Government are the three Hindu princes : (1) The brother of ruling Prince of Despala, (Oressa) ; imprisoned for life, his numerous followers hanged. 52 (2) Eaja Gopal Singh of Kharwa, Rajputana, arrested in the Benares conspiracy case; charged with giving arms and money to conspirators. Sentenced to two years impris- onment. (His ancient lineage and powerful connections account for a comparatively light sentence.) (3) Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, of Brendraban- Hathrus, is reported to have joined the German Army to fight against the British. A number of misleading reports have been circulated in this country by the British official news agencies, which have a direct bearing on the work of our paper, the "Hindu- stan Gadar." Newspapers have published here that the up- risings which have thrown India into turmoil were ' ' hatched and plotted" by the staff of our paper. The object of the British Government in spreading such misinformation is twofold: First — To bring us, if possible, into trouble with the authorities of this country. Second — To persuade the civilized world to believe that the political unrest in India has been manufactured artifi- cially by a few Hindus who have lived abroad, and is not a natural reaction on the part of the people of India as a whole against the unbearable tyranny of the British Gov- ernment. The truth of the matter is quite the reverse. British rule in India is in grave peril. The revolt in India is as widespread as it is indigenous. It has not been artificially hatched by the handful of Hindus who have come out of their country in search of a meagre living or of education. Hindustan Gadar. As regards the work of The Hindustan Gadar, there has never been any secret. It is published by the Hindu residents of the United States and of other countries outside India, and is an uncompromising advocate of complete politi- cal independence and liberty for India. 53 It was established in November, 1913, its first editor being the famous Har Dayal, former Stanford professor, who is generally regarded as the leader of Young India. Har Dayal worked so zealously and effectively that the British Ambassador appealed to the United States Government to have him arrested. Accordingly, he was arrested in March, 1914. but the action was never brought to trial. Strong public protests were made in the newspapers against this action of the Government. In April, 1914, Har Dayal left this country and went to Europe. Since then I have acted as editor. Suddenly the war broke out in Europe. Soon Lord Hardinge, Viceroy of India, and Austin Chamberlain, Secre- tary of State for India, began to mention our paper in their speeches and then the American Government, which had already from the beginning barred our paper from being mailed to India, still further restricted our activities by refusing to forward it to any of the British Colonies. The Post Office likewise refused to forward to India or the Colonies copies of William Jennings Bryan's pamphlet on India which we had republished, and in which he says Brit- ish rule in India is worse than Russian rule in Russia. We, of course, are obliged to conform to the orders of the Gov- ernment. Nevertheless there are nearly one million readers of the ''Gadar" outside of India and the British Colonies and through their efforts many copies penetrate into India, thence to Afghanistan, where, according to Manila, P. I., newspapers, they were distributed among the Afghan sol- diers fighting against the British on the frontier. The ^'Gadar" has penetrated also to Persia, Turkey and even to the ranks of the British Hindu Army in France, as the following quotation from the "London Times History of the War ' ' will show : "Another hail of sheets marked the descent from heav- en of the Gadar, an inflammatory journal published by an Indian revolutionary society in San Francisco. The authors of this poisonous leaflet have long been trying to sow the 54 seeds of sedition in the army of the Punjab. 'Ghadar' in Urdu means 'Rebellion.' The copies that were rained upon our troops urged them to raise the standard of revolt in Hindustan. ' ' Our readers are so loyal and enthusiastic to the cause of Indian freedom that they have succeeded in making the Gadar well nigh omnipresent. Causes of the Revolution The civilized world would never believe when I say that the British Government draws 500,000,000 rupees an- nually from India and the Hindus have become so poor that the average annual income of a Hindu is only 27 rupees ($9.00) according to Lord Curzon and but 15 rupees ($5.00), according to Sir William Digby. A Hindu soldier, school teacher or a policeman gets 9 rupees ($3.00) a month. Now the question will arise, if this is the case, how can the Hindus live. The answer is, the Hindus are not living, they are dying, owing to the British rule. Nineteen millions died of famine and fifteen millions died of plague and malaria, according to Sir William Digby from 1891 to 1900. When invidious legislation and counter vailing internal duties destroyed the home industry of Hindustan, 40 million people were thrown out of work and forced into agriculture. A Hindu agriculturist is forced to pay from 60 to 70 per cent as land tax ; being unable to pay the taxes, and to avoid untimely death, a few who have had the necessary means have left their children and wives and have gone out to Canada, Africa and Australia. But the British Government could not bear to see these few a little prosperous in these colonies. New laws were enacted to exclude the Hindus from Canada, Australia and Africa. Hindus protested. In the Fiji Islands and British Guinea Hindus were shot dead like dogs. Hindu women and children were sent to jail in South Africa, and a shipload of Hindu men and women 55 were kept for weeks in Canadian waters and after all sent back to India. Now every Hindu, rich and poor, educated and peas- ants alike, have become well aware of the fact that there is only one cause for India's degradation and humiliation in the world and that is the British rule. The Hindus, an ancient civilized race, who used to feed ants, monkeys and birds, who on account of their kindly nature do not kill ani- mals, have been transformed into the fierce revolutionists of to-day, killing as many Englishmen as they can, so un- bearable has British tyranny become. What the Hindus Want There are three chief political parties in India : First — The Moderate Party which seeks for colonial self-govern- ment, like Canada and Australia, which is denied by the British Government in their repeated parliamentary re- ports. Lord Morley, when Secretary of State for India, said that India's desire for self government is like a child reaching for the moon ; and Lord Hardinge, former Viceroy, on leaving India, said that self government for India is im- possible. Statements like these coming to the knowledge of the Moderate party has caused even that party to lose confidence in British Government, but through fear they have hitherto hesitated to take openly a bolder position. This party includes Rajas, Princes and other Hindu British offi- cials. Second — The Nationalist Party, which seeks for inde- pendence and separation from the British Government through passive resistance; they don't believe in promises of the Government. They want their own Government regard- less of what kind it may be ; whether Monarchical or Demo- cratic. Third — The most formidable and powerful party, the Gadar party, which seeks total autonomy and absolute freedom through revolution. They have no hope that any- thing can be achieved by begging from the Government, or passive resistance. They seek to establish the free Republic 56 of the United States of India. The important fact of the present days is that these three parties are rapidly consoli- dating into one with the single purpose of breaking away from British rule. British reports say that the Hindus prefer English rule to the German rule and they hate the Germans. This is abso- lutely false. The Hindus do not hate the Germans ; the Ger- mans have not done any wrong to the Hindus. On the con- trary, they would welcome the Germans if they came as liberators. One thing should be kept in mind— that the Hindus detest the British rule and will never be satisfied un- til British rule is destroyed and India is free forever. For publication in Cartoon's Magazine, Chicago. The same was published in part in the Nezv York Times and New York Sun. LOOTING BY THE BRITISH IN INDIA. By RAM CHANDRA — Boston Daily Advertiser, September 12, 1916 A letter from George L. Fox, published in the Springfield Republican, in praise of England's rule of India and Egypt is being used as propaganda material in support of English rule in India. There are some statements in this article that should not go unchallenged. Mr. Fox in this article calls attention to a statement by Mr. Charles H. Barrows that ''Brute force seated England in India and brute force, step by step, extended her power over that country until India has become her great $150,000,000 cow for yearly milk- ing • " * * * The latter part of this statement implies that this amount is drawn by taxation from India to England, and Mr. Fox challenges anyone to furnish reliable authority for such a statement. The statement of Mr. Barrows was not made 57 in this sense but rather means the sum total of revenue ex- tracted from India by England every year not only by taxa- tion but in all ways and this figure has been certainly so esti- mated by competent authorities, such as Sir William Digby, C. I. E. ; Mr. Hyndman and Mr. Alfred Deble. Let me quote from Adam Brooks (Laws of Civilization and Decay, page 259-246) : ''Very soon after the battle of Plassey (fought in 1757) the Bengal plunder began to arrive in London and the effect appears to have been almost instantaneous. Prob- ably since the world began no investment has yielded the profit reaped from the Indian plunder. The amount of treasure wrung from the conquered people and transferred from India to English banks between Plassey and Waterloo (fifty-seven years) has been variously estimated at from $2,500,000,000 to $5,000,000,000. The methods of plunder and embezzlement by which every Briton in India enriched himself during the earlier history of the East India Company gradually passed away, but the drain did not pass away. The difference between the earlier day and the present is that India's tribute to England is obtained by 'indirect methods' under forms of law. It was estimated by Mr. Hindman some years ago that at least $175,000,000 is drained away every year from India without a cent's re- turn. ' ' Mr. Alfred Webb (late M. P.), who has studied the subject with care, says: "In charges for the India office (in London) ; for recruiting (in Great Britain, for soldiers to serve in India) ; for civil and military pensions (to men now living in England, who were formerly in the Indian service) ; for pay and allowances on furloughs (to men on visits to England) ; for private remittances and consign- ments (from India to England), there is annually drawn from India, and spent in the United Kingdom, a sum calcu- lated at from 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 pounds. (Between $125,000,000 and $150,000,000.) 58 The significance of the drain from India by taxation does not lie alone in the greatness of the total sum, it must be considered in the light of the financial condition of those who have to pay the tax. The tax is severe in proportion to the poverty of the people. In India not only are the masses of the people in extreme poverty, but the greatest authorities inscribe the intensity of this poverty to taxation itself. Rev. J. T. Sunderland, in his work, ''The Causes of Famines in India," like all impartial writers, has proved conclusively that neither "failure of rains," nor "over- population, ' ' is the cause of famines in India. He has stated that the real cause of famines is the extreme, the abject, the awful poverty of the Indian people caused by the "ENORMOUS FOREIGN TRIBUTE," "British Indian Imperialism," and the destruction of Indian industries." Sir William Hunter, K. C. S. I., in the Viceroy's Coun- cil, 1883, says: "The government assessment does not leave enough food to the cultivator to support himself and his family throughout the year. ' ' Hindustan is an extensive agricultural country, the average land produces two crops a year, and in Bengal there are lands which produce thrice a year. Bengal alone produces such large crops that they are quite sufficient to provide ALL THE POPULATION OF HINDUSTAN FOR TWO YEARS, and yet Mr. Herbert Compton in "Indian Life," 1904, says: "There is no more pathetic figure in the British Empire than the Indian peasant. His masters have been unjust ever to him. He is ground until everything has been expressed, except the marrow of his bones." Mr. Fox denies also the statement that England holds India by brute force. His argument is that an army of 75,000 men, only one-sixth of whom are Englishmen, could not hold in subjection 300,000,000. As a matter of fact the army before the war numbered 300,000, of which more than 59 75,000 were English. Mr. Fox seems to forget that India has been disarmed, and the English have posted powerful batteries overlooking all the large cities. Sir James Bryce, ex-Ambassador at Washington, in his book ' ' The Roman and the British Empire, ' ' writes : "(English) society is not in India as it is in England, an ordinary civil society. It is a military society, military first and foremost. . . . The traveler from peaceful England feels himself, exjeept perhaps in Bombay, sur- rounded by an atmosphere of gunpowder all the time he stays in India." Not only the Hindus are not permitted to possess fire arms of any description, they are not even per- mitted to possess long knives that could be used as daggers. During the unrest of 1907 there was police restriction in Bengal by which anybody found having in his possession a stick large enough to be used as a club should be arrested and fined. This was directed especially against young stu- dents. In cases where persons are found possessed even with small daggers, a punishment ranging from seven years to life imprisonment is inflicted. Even knowledge of fire arms must be kept from the people. Consider the following taken from the Bengalee, Calcutta, quoted in India, London, September 17, 1915 : Child Sentenced for Playing With Toy Pistol "A five-year-old boy of Mushiganj Road, Kidderpore (Bengal), had a toy pistol purchased for him for one anna (2 cents). On August 8th, last, a child was playing with it, but could not explode the paper cap. A twelve-year-old lad showed him how to do it. The boy was at once arrested by a constable and marched off to the Watgani Thana (Police Station) with the toy firearm. The boy was eventually sent up for trial at Alipur and the Court (English Judge) fined him three rupees (one dollar)." 60 Reliability (!) of English Reports. How England Deceives Even Her Own People. —Boston Daily Advertiser, July 17, 1916 The British Government has tried hard to conceal the truth from the English people as well as the neutrals. Such have always been their tactics. The most notable instance I remember was of the days of 1857. That great Hindu Re- bellion broke out, as is well known, on May 10, 1857. On the 11th of June of that year, the president of the Board of Trade said, in reply to a question in the British Parliament that ''there was no reason for anxiety as regards the late unrest in Bengal. By the dexterity, firmness and quickness of my noble friend. Lord Canning (Governor-General of India), the seeds of unrest have been completely rooted out." Now, on the very date that the Parliament heard those optimistic words, in India, 11 cavalry regiments, five field batteries of artillery, at least 50 regiments of infantry, etc., had arisen in revolt; the Province of Oudh had fallen in their hands. Some news of these happenings had found their way to the English public. Another question was asked in the Parliament, with special reference to the massacre of the English at Cawnpur on the 14th of August, 1857— that is, one month after the Cawnpur episode— and this was the reply made by the Earl of Granville :— "I have received a personal letter from Gen. Sir Patrick Grant that the rumor about Cawnpur is altogether untrue, and is a vile fabrication. ' ' The Hon. Austin Chamberlain and Lord Hardinge are doing exactly what their "distinguished ancestors" did. It is true that the British are still in India, but this does not prove that India is "loyal" to them. On the contrary, the movement to oust them is gaining strength daily. Of course there is a small — insignificantly small — number of 61 "loyal Hindus" whom the Government has pampered with gold and titles. Pratep Singh, an ignorant Rajput soldier of fortune, has been made a ruling prince by the British; a new state, that of Idar, was created for him. He is an ''Hon. Major General" of British Army and has a long row of titles before and after his name. He has received his guerdon for following the British flag in all its murderous career of aggression and exploitation. The Government uses him now as a procurer to decoy young Rajput chiefs. Out of three hundred million starving people of India the British can always get a few police gendarmes and mercen- ary troops to watch and murder their own brethren; just as the Belgians did in Congo when Mark Twain wrote his satire on King Leopold. Mr. Austin Chamberlain, in one of his recent pronounce- ments to the American people, quoted a Hindu gentleman named Sinha as pledging his loyalty, and that of his fellow countrymen, to the English cause. Who is this man, Sinha? He is a Government prosecutor and a knight of the realm. Sir S. P. Sinha is a ''smoked" Englishman. So, apart from these traitors to their race, who obtain "high positions" through sacrifice of the most elementary principles of self- respect, honesty and social sense, India is becoming more and more rebellious. Surely, though against great odds, she is preparing to overthrow the hated yoke of foreign tyranny. RAM CHANDRA. The same was published in part in the San Francisco Examiner. 62 Gadar Publications India Against Britain a Reply to Austin Cham'berlain, Lord Hardinge, Lord Islington, etc. This pamphlet contains the essential facts concerning the unrest of 1915-16; causes of the uprisings, conditions of famine, taxation, education, oppressive measures of the Government, etc. Price, 15 cents. British Rule in India by William Jennings Bryan. In this pamphlet, the former Secretary of State, as a result of personal observation in India, says that British Rule in India is Worse Than Russian Rule in Russia. Price, 5 cents. A Few Facts About British Rule in India This pamphlet contains only statements by British authorities, showing the disastrous effects of British Rule. Price, 5 cents. Indian Police in the 20th Century This pamphlet reveals a police tyranny so unbearable to all, including women and children, that the civilized world will believe it incredible. Price, 5 cents. Photos of Revolutionists of 1857, blown from the mouths of cannon. Photos of Persian Revolutionists hanged by Russians and British. Photos of Hindu Revolution- ists executed or imprisoned for life during 1915-16. HINDUSTAN GADAR, San Francisco, Cal. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 029 946 016 2 FOR FAVoUfI a.' - 'VIEW-