Theosophical Society,
Annie
Besant 1847 - 1933
THE CASE FOR INDIA
The Presidential
Address Delivered by Annie Besant at the
Thirty-Second
Indian National Congress Held at
FELLOW-DELEGATES AND FRIENDS,
Everyone who has preceded me in this Chair has rendered his thanks
in
fitting terms for the gift which is truly said to be the highest
that
trust, and
approval, and the one whom she seats in that chair is, for
his year of service, her chosen leader. But if my predecessors found
fitting words for their gratitude, in what words can I voice mine,
whose
debt to you is so overwhelmingly greater than theirs? For the first
time
in Congress history, you have chosen as your President one who,
when
your choice was made, was under the heavy ban of Government
displeasure,
and who lay interned as a person dangerous to public safety. While
I was
humiliated, you crowned me with honour; while I was slandered, you
believed in my integrity and good faith; while I was crushed under
the
heel of bureaucratic power, you acclaimed me as your leader; while
I was
silenced and unable to defend myself, you defended me, and won for
me
release. I was proud to serve in lowliest fashion, but you lifted
me up
and placed me before the world as your chosen representative. I
have no
words with which to thank you, no eloquence with which to repay my
debt.
My deeds must speak for me, for words are too poor. I turn your
gift
into service to the Motherland; I consecrate my life anew to her in
worship by action. All that I have and am, I lay on the Altar of
the
Mother, and together we shall cry, more by service than by words:
VANDE
MATARAM.
There is, perhaps, one value in your election of me in this crisis
of
but come from
that little island in the northern seas which has been, in
the West, the builder-up of free institutions. The Aryan emigrants,
who
spread over the
lands of
sown in their
blood in their Asian cradle-land. Western historians trace
the self-rule of the Saxon villages to their earlier prototypes in
the
East, and see the growth of English liberty as up-springing from
the
Aryan root of the free and self-contained village communities.
Its growth was crippled by Norman feudalism there, as its
millennia-nourished security here was smothered by the
Company. But in
liberty-loving people and a
free Commons' House. Here, it similarly
bourgeoned out into the Congress activities, and more recently into
those of the Muslim League, now together blossoming into Home Rule
for
Wilberforce, Gladstone; the
Kropotkin, Stepniak, and that welcomed Garibaldi; the
the enemy of
tyranny, the foe of autocracy, the lover of freedom, that
is the
self-respecting, determined
to be free; when she stretches out her hand
to
obedience; to-day let me:
western-born but in spirit eastern, cradled in
union between
choice, not of
compulsion: and therefore of a tie which cannot be
broken, a tie of love and of mutual helpfulness, beneficial to both
Nations and blessed by God.
GONE TO THE PEACE.
now one of the
company of the Immortals, who watch over and aid
progress. He is with
V.C. Bonnerjee, and Ranade, and A.O. Hume, and
Henry Cotton, and Pherozeshah Mehta, and Gopal
great men who, in
Swinburne's noble verse, are the stars which lead us
to
These, O men, shall ye
honour,
For thy sake and for all
men's and mine,
Brother, the crowns of
them shine,
Lighting the way to her
shrine,
That our eyes may be
fastened upon her,
That our hands may
encompass her knees.
Not for me to praise him in feeble words of reverence or of homage.
His
deeds praise him, and his service to his country is his abiding
glory.
Our gratitude will be best paid by following in his footsteps,
alike in
his splendid courage and his unfaltering devotion, so that we may
win
the Home Rule which he longed to see while with us, and shall see,
ere
long, from the other world of Life, in which he dwells to-day.
CHAPTER I.
PRE-WAR MILITARY EXPENDITURE.
The Great War, into the whirlpool of which Nation after Nation has
been
drawn, has entered on its fourth year. The rigid censorship which
has
been established makes it impossible for any outside the circle of
Governments to forecast its duration, but to me, speaking for a
moment
not as a politician but as a student of spiritual laws, to me its
end is
sure. For the true object of this War is to prove the evil of, and
to
destroy, autocracy and the enslavement of one Nation by another,
and to
place on sure foundations the God-given Right to Self-Rule and
Self-Development of every Nation, and the similar right of the
Individual, of the smaller Self, so far as is consistent with the
welfare of the larger Self of the Nation. The forces which make for
the
prolongation of autocracy--the rule of one--and the even deadlier
bureaucracy--the rule of a close body welded into an iron
system--these
have been gathered together in the Central Powers of Europe--as of
old
in Ravana--in order that they may be destroyed; for the New Age
cannot
be opened until the Old passes away. The new civilisation of
Righteousness and Justice, and therefore of Brotherhood, of ordered
are removed
which have brought the old civilisation crashing about our
ears. Therefore is it necessary that the War shall be fought out to
its
appointed end, and that no premature peace shall leave its object
unattained. Autocracy and bureaucracy must perish utterly, in East
and
West, and, in order that their germs may not re-sprout in the
future,
they must be discredited in the minds of men. They must be proved
to be
less efficient than the Governments of Free Peoples, even in their
favourite work of War, and their iron machinery--which at first
brings
outer prosperity and success--must be shown to be less lasting and
effective than the living and flexible organisations of democratic
Peoples. They must be proved failures before the world, so that the
glamour of superficial successes may be destroyed for ever. They
have
had their day and their place in evolution, and have done their
educative work. Now they are out-of-date, unfit for survival, and
must
vanish away.
When
small nation,
guaranteed by treaties, and the great principles she
proclaimed electrified
side without
question, without delay; they heard the voice of old
unprepared, save the
small territorial army of
genius and
foresight of Lord Haldane, and the readily mobilised army of
little army of
gained the time it
fought for, till
cheered them with
failing breath, charged the advancing hosts, stopped
the retreat, and joined the British army in forming that
unbreakable
line which wrestled to the death through two fearful
winters--often,
these soldiers of the tropics, waist-deep in freezing mud--and knew
no
surrender.
Freedom, in
Rightly she stood by
the coercive
legislation which outrivalled German despotism, knowing
these to be temporary, because un-English, and therefore doomed to
destruction; she spurned the lure of German gold and rejected
German
appeals to revolt. She offered men and money; her educated classes,
her
Vakils, offered themselves as Volunteers, pleaded to be accepted.
Then
the never-sleeping distrust of Anglo-India rejected the offer,
pressed
for money, rejected men. And, slowly, educated
depressed and
disheartened, and a splendid opportunity for knitting
together the two Nations was lost.
Early in the War I ventured to say that the War could not end until
as well as in
of his free
race, lately declared that it would be hypocritical to pray
for victory over
autocracy in
has been clearly
and definitely declared that Self-Government is to be
the objective of
of it is to be
given at once; when this promise is made good by the
granting of the
Reforms outlined last year in
the War will be
in sight. For the War cannot end till the death-knell of
autocracy is sounded.
Causes, with which I will deal presently and for which
responsible, have
somewhat obscured the first eager expressions of
position in the
Empire. But that does not detract from the immense aid
she has given, and is still giving. It must not be forgotten that
long
before the present War she had submitted--at first, while she had
no
power of remonstrance, and later, after 1885, despite the constant
protests of Congress--to an ever-rising military expenditure, due
partly
to the amalgamation scheme of 1859, and partly to the cost of
various
wars beyond her frontiers, and to continual recurring frontier and
trans-frontier expeditions, in which she had no real interest. They
were
sent out for supposed Imperial advantages, not for her own.
Between 1859 and 1904--45 years--Indian troops were engaged in
thirty-seven wars and expeditions. There were ten wars: the two
Chinese
Wars of 1860 and 1900, the
1868, the Afghan War of 1878-79, and, after the massacre of the
frontier, in the
search for an ever receding "scientific frontier"; on
this occasion the
frontier was shifted, says
the
to
markedly
distinguished themselves; the third Burmese War of 1885 ending
in the
annexation of
and 1904. Of
Expeditions, or minor Wars, there were 27; to Sitana in
1858 on a small scale and in 1863 on a larger (the "Sitana
Campaign");
to
the North-west
Frontier in 1868; expeditions against the Lushais in
1871-72, the Daflas in 1874-75, the Nagas in 1875, the Afridis in
1877,
the Rampa Hill tribes in 1879, the Waziris and Nagas in 1881, the
Akhas
in 1884, and in
the same year an expedition to the
second thither in
1890. In 1888 and 1889 there was another expedition
against
against the Hill
Tribes of the North-east, and in 1890 another Black
Mountain Expedition, with a third in 1892. In 1890 came the
expedition
to Manipur, and in 1891 there was another expedition against the
Lushais, and one into
the
occupied 1894-95, and
the serious Tirah Campaign, in which 40,000 men
were engaged, came in 1897 and 1898. The long list--which I have
closed
with 1904--ends with the expeditions against the Mahsuds in 1901,
against the Kabalis
in 1902, and the invasion of
All these events explain the rise in military expenditure, and we
must
add to them the
sending of Indian troops to
somewhat theatrical
demonstration--and the expenditure of some
£2,000,000 to face what was described as "the Russian
Menace" in 1884.
Most of these were due to Imperial, not to Indian, policy, and many
of
the burdens imposed were protested against by the Government of
India,
while others were encouraged by ambitious Viceroys. I do not think
that
even this long list is complete.
Ever since the Government of India was taken over by the Crown,
has been regarded as an Imperial military asset and training
ground, a
position from which the jealousy of the East India Company had
largely
protected her, by insisting that the army it supported should be
used
for the defence
and in the interests of
Empire for military purposes would not so seriously have injured at
once
her pride and her finances if the natural tendencies of her martial
races had been permitted their previous scope; but the disarming of
the
people, 20 years after the assumption of the Government by the
Crown,
emasculated the Nation, and the elimination of races supposed to be
unwarlike, or in some cases too warlike to be trusted, threw
recruitment
more and more to the north, and lowered the physique of the
Bengalis and
Madrasis, on whom the Company had largely depended.
The superiority of the
vehemently insisted the
other day, is an artificial superiority, created
by the British system and policy; and the poor recruitment
elsewhere, on
which he laid offensive insistence, is due to the same system and
policy, which largely eliminated Bengalis, Madrasis and Mahrattas
from
the army. In
in consequence
of what the Bengalis felt to be the intolerable insult of
the high-handed Partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon.
On this Gopal Krishna Gokhale said:
uncontrolled
bureaucracy has astonished and gratified all
The spirit evoked showed itself in the youth of
revolt, led by the
elders, while it was confined to Swadeshi and
Boycott, and rushing on, when it broke away from their authority,
into
conspiracy, assassination and dacoity: as had happened in similar
revolts with Young Italy, in the days of Mazzini, and with Young
Russia
in the days of Stepniak and Kropotkin. The results of their
despair,
necessarily met by the halter and penal servitude, had to be faced
by
Lord Hardinge and Lord Carmichael during the present War. Other
results,
happy instead of disastrous in their nature, was the development of
grit
and endurance of a high character, shown in the courage of the
lads in the serious floods that have laid parts of the Province
deep
under water, and in their compassion and self-sacrifice in the
relief of
famine. Their services in the present War--the Ambulance Corps and
the
replacement of its _materiel_ when the ship carrying it sank, with
the
splendid services
rendered by it in
Bengali regiment for active service, 900 strong, with another 900
reserves to replace wastage, and recruiting still going on--these
are
instances of the divine alchemy which brings the soul of good out
of
evil action, and consecrates to service the qualities evoked by
rebellion.
In
to go to the
front, winning the Victoria Cross. It would be an act of
statesmanship, as well as of divinest compassion, to offer to every
prisoner and interned captive, held for political crime or on
political
suspicion, the opportunity of serving the Empire at the front. They
might, if thought necessary, form a separate battalion or a
separate
regiment, under stricter supervision, and yet be given a chance of
redeeming their reputation, for they are mostly very young.
The financial burden incurred in consequence of the above
conflicts, and
of other causes, now to be mentioned, would not have been so much
resented, if it had
been imposed by
sons had profited
by her being used as a training ground for the
Empire. But in this case, as in so many others, she has shared
Imperial
burdens, while not sharing Imperial freedom and power. Apart from
this,
the change which made the Army so ruinous a burden on the resources
of
the country was
the system of "British reliefs," the using of
training ground for
British regiments, and the transfer of the men thus
trained, to be replaced by new ones under the short service system,
the
cost of the frequent transfers and their connected expenses being
charged on the Indian revenues, while the whole advantage was
reaped by
declared:
The short service system
recently introduced into the British
Army has increased the
cost and has materially reduced the
efficiency
of the British troops in
feeling
that, in the introduction of this system, the interest
of the Indian tax-payer
was entirely left out of consideration.
The remark was certainly justified, for the short service system
gave
all the rest of
the benefit going to
the years went on, to enormously increase her Reserves, so that she
has
had 400,000 men trained in, and at the cost of, India.
In 1863 the Indian army consisted of 140,000 men, with 65,000 white
officers. Great changes were made in 1885-1905, including the
reorganisation under Lord Kitchener, who became Commander-in-Chief
at
the end of 1902. Even in this hasty review, I must not omit
reference to
the fact that Army Stores were drawn from Britain at enormous cost,
while they should have been chiefly manufactured here, so that
India
might have profited by the expenditure. Lately under the
necessities of
War, factories have been turned to the production of munitions; but
this
should have been done long ago, so that India might have been
enriched
instead of exploited. The War has forced an investigation into her
mineral resources that might have been made for her own sake, but
Germany was allowed to monopolise the supply of minerals that India
could have produced and worked up, and would have produced and
worked up
had she enjoyed Home Rule. India would have been richer, and the
Empire
safer, had she been a partner instead of a possession. But this
side of
the question will come under the matters directly affecting
merchants,
and we may venture to express a hope that the Government help
extended
to munition factories in time of War may be continued to industrial
factories in time of Peace. The net result of the various causes
above-mentioned was that the expense of the Indian army rose by
leaps
and bounds, until, before the War, India was expending, £21,000,000
as
against the £28,000,000 expended by the United Kingdom, while the
wealthy Dominions of Canada and Australia were spending only 1-1/2
and
1-1/4 millions respectively. (I am not forgetting that the United
Kingdom was expending over £51,000,000 on her Navy, while India was
free
of that burden, save for a contribution of half a million.)
Since 1885, the Congress has constantly protested against the
ever-increasing military expenditure, but the voice of the Congress
was
supposed to be the voice of sedition and of class ambition, instead
of
being, as it was the voice of educated Indians, the most truly
patriotic
and loyal class of the population. In 1885, in the First Congress,
Mr.
P. Rangiah Naidu pointed out that military expenditure had been
£1,463,000 in 1857 and had risen to £16,975,750 in 1884. Mr. D.E.
Wacha
ascribed the growth to the amalgamation scheme of 1859, and remarked
that the Company in 1856 had an army of 254,000 men at a cost of
11-1/2
millions, while in 1884 the Crown had an army of only 181,000 men
at a
cost of 17 millions. The rise was largely due to the increased cost
of
the European regiments, overland transport service, stores,
pensions,
furlough allowances, and the like, most of them imposed despite the
resistance of the Government of India, which complained that the
changes
were "made entirely, it may be said, from Imperial considerations,
in
which Indian interests have not been consulted or advanced."
India paid
nearly, £700,000 a year, for instance, for "Home
Depôts"--Home being
England of course--in which lived some 20,000 to 22,000 British
soldiers, on the plea that their regiments, not they, were serving
in
India. I cannot follow out the many increases cited by Mr. Wacha,
but
members can refer to his excellent speech.
Mr. Fawcett once remarked that when the East India Company was
abolished
the English people
became directly responsible for the
Government of India. It
cannot, I think, be denied that this
responsibility has been
so imperfectly discharged that in many
respects the new system
of Government compares unfavourably
with the old.... There
was at that time an independent control
of expenditure which now
seems to be almost entirely wanting.
Shortly after the Crown assumed the rule of India, Mr. Disraeli
asked
the House of Commons to regard India as "a great and solemn
trust
committed to it by an all-wise and inscrutable Providence."
Mr. George
Yule, in the Fourth Congress, remarked on this: "The 650 odd
members had
thrown the trust back upon the hands of Providence, to be looked
after
as Providence itself thinks best." Perhaps it is time that
India should
remember that Providence helps those who help themselves.
Year after year the Congress continued to remonstrate against the
cost
of the army, until in 1902, after all the futile protests of the
intervening years, it condemned an increase of pay to British
soldiers
in India which placed an additional burden on the Indian revenues
of
£786,000 a year, and pointed out that the British garrison was
unnecessarily numerous, as was shown by the withdrawal of large
bodies
of British soldiers for service in South Africa and China. The very
next
year Congress protested that the increasing military expenditure
was not
to secure India against internal disorder or external attack, but
in
order to carry out an Imperial policy; the Colonies contributed
little
or nothing to the Imperial Military Expenditure, while India bore
the
cost of about one-third of the whole British Army in addition to
her own
Indian troops. Surely these facts should be remembered when India's
military services to the Empire are now being weighed.
In 1904 and 1905, the Congress declared that the then military
expenditure was beyond India's power to bear, and in the latter
year
prayed that the additional ten millions sterling sanctioned for Lord
Kitchener's reorganisation scheme might be devoted to education and
the
reduction of the burden on the raiyats. In 1908, the burdens
imposed by
the British War Office since 1859 were condemned, and in the next
year
it was pointed out that the military expenditure was nearly a third
of
the whole Indian revenue, and was starving Education and
Sanitation.
Lord Kitchener's reorganisation scheme kept the Indian Army on a
War
footing, ready for immediate mobilisation, and on January 1, 1915,
the
regular army consisted of 247,000 men, of whom 75,000 were English;
it
was the money spent by India in maintaining this army for years in
readiness for War which made it possible for her to go to the help
of
Great Britain at the critical early period to which I alluded. She
spent
over £20 millions on the military services in 1914-15. In 1915-16
she
spent £21.8 millions. In 1916-17 her military budget had risen to
£12
millions, and it will probably be exceeded, as was the budget of
the
preceding year by £1-2/3 million.
Lord Hardinge, the last Viceroy of India, who is ever held in
loving
memory here for his sympathetic attitude towards Indian
aspirations,
made a masterly exposition of India's War services in the House of
Lords
on the third of last July. He emphasised her pre-War services,
showing
that though 19-1/4 millions sterling was fixed as a maximum by the
Nicholson Committee, that amount had been exceeded in 11 out of the
last
13 budgets, while his own last budget had risen to 22 millions.
During
these 13 years the revenue had been only between 48 and 58
millions,
once rising to 60 millions. Could any fact speak more eloquently of
India's War services than this proportion of military expenditure
compared with her revenue?
The Great War began on August 4th, and in that very month and in
the
early part of September, India sent an expeditionary force of three
divisions--two infantry and one cavalry--and another cavalry
division
joined them in France in November. The first arrived, said Lord
Hardinge, "in time to fill a gap that could not otherwise have
been
filled." He added pathetically: "There are very few
survivors of those
two splendid divisions of infantry." Truly, their homes are
empty, but
their sons shall enjoy in India the liberty for which their fathers
died
in France. Three more divisions were at once sent to guard the
Indian
frontier, while in September a mixed division was sent to East
Africa,
and in October and November two more divisions and a brigade of
cavalry
went to Egypt. A battalion of Indian infantry went to Mauritius,
another
to the Cameroons, and two to the Persian Gulf, while other Indian
troops
helped the Japanese in the capture of Tsingtau. 210,000 Indians
were
thus sent overseas. The whole of these troops were fully armed and
equipped, and in addition, during the first few weeks of the War,
India
sent to England from her magazines "70 million rounds of
small-arm
ammunition, 60,000 rifles, and more than 550 guns of the latest
pattern
and type."
In addition to these, Lord Hardinge speaks of sending to England
enormous quantities of
material,... tents, boots, saddlery,
clothing, etc., but
every effort was made to meet the
ever-increasing demands
made by the War Office, and it may be
stated without
exaggeration that India was bled absolutely
white during the first
few weeks of the war.
It must not be forgotten, though Lord Hardinge has not reckoned it,
that
all wastage has been more than filled up, and 450,000 men represent
this
head; the increase in units has been 300,000, and including other
military items India had placed in the field up to the end of 1916
over
a million of men.
In addition to this a British force of 80,000 was sent from India,
fully
trained and equipped at Indian cost, India receiving in exchange,
many
months later, 34 Territorial battalions and 29 batteries,
"unfit for
immediate employment on the frontier or in Mesopotamia, until they
had
been entirely re-armed and equipped, and their training
completed."
Between the autumn of 1914 and the close of 1915, the defence of
our own
frontiers was a serious matter, and Lord Hardinge says:
The attitude of
Afghanistan was for a long time doubtful,
although I always had
confidence in the personal loyalty of our
ally the Amir; but I
feared lest he might be overwhelmed by a
wave of fanaticism, or
by a successful Jehad of the tribes....
It suffices to mention
that, although during the previous three
years there had been no
operations of any importance on the
North-West frontier,
there were, between November 29, 1914, and
September 5, 1915, no
less than seven serious attacks on the
North-West frontier, all
of which were effectively dealt with.
The military authorities had also to meet a German conspiracy early
in
1915, 7,000 men arriving from Canada and the United States, having
planned to seize points of military vantage in the Panjab, and in
December of the same year another German conspiracy in Bengal,
necessitating military preparations on land, and also naval patrols
in
the Bay of Bengal.
Lord Hardinge has been much attacked by the Tory and Unionist Press
in
England and India, in England because of the Mesopotamia Report, in
India because his love for India brought him hatred from
Anglo-India.
India has affirmed her confidence in him, and with India's verdict
he
may well rest satisfied.
I do not care to dwell on the Mesopotamia Commission and its
condemnation of the bureaucratic system prevailing here. Lord
Hardinge
vindicated himself and India. The bureaucratic system remains
undefended. I recall that bureaucratic inefficiency came out in
even
more startling fashion in connection with the Afghan War of 1878-79
and
1879-80. In February 1880, the war charges were reported as under
£4
millions, and the accounts showed a surplus of £2 millions. On
April 8th
the Government of India reported: "Outgoing for War very
alarming, far
exceeding estimate," and on the 13th April "it was
announced that the
cash balances had fallen in three months from thirteen crores to
less
than nine, owing to 'excessive Military drain' ... On the following
day
(April 22) a despatch was sent out to the Viceroy, showing that
there
appeared a deficiency of not less than 5-1/4 crores. This vast
error was
evidently due to an underestimate of war liabilities, which had led
to
such mis-information being laid before Parliament, and to the
sudden
discovery of inability to 'meet the usual drawings.'"
It seemed that the Government knew only the amount audited, not the
amount spent. Payments were entered as "advances," though
they were not
recoverable, and "the great negligence was evidently that of
the heads
of departmental accounts." If such a mishap should occur under
Home
Rule, a few years hence--which heaven forbid--I shudder to think of
the
comments of the _Englishman_ and the _Madras Mail_ on the shocking
inefficiency of Indian officials.
In September last, our present Viceroy, H.E. Lord Chelmsford, defended
India against later attacks by critics who try to minimise her
sacrifices in order to lessen the gratitude felt by Great Britain
towards her, lest that gratitude should give birth to justice, and
justice should award freedom to India. Lord Chelmsford placed
before his
Council "in studiously considered outline, a summary of what
India has
done during the past two years." Omitting his references to
what was
done under Lord Hardinge, as stated above, I may quote from him:
On the outbreak of war, of
the 4,598 British officers on the
Indian establishment,
530 who were at home on leave were
detained by the War
Office for service in Europe. 2,600
Combatant Officers have
been withdrawn from India since the
beginning of the War,
excluding those who proceeded on service
with their batteries or
regiments. In order to make good these
deficiencies and provide
for war wastage the Indian Army