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 INDIA

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INDIA

States — which latter are in varying degrees under the sway of the supreme executive authority of the Governor-General of India, more commonly known as the viceroy. For purposes of administration tlie Indian Empire is divided into the nine great provinces of Madras, Bombay, Bengal, Eastern Bengal and Assam, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, the Punjab, Burma, Central Provinces, and the Nortli- Wcst Frontier Province, under officials variously designated governor, lieutenant-governor and chief commissioner — the minor charges being Coorg, Aj- mere-Marwara, British Baluchistan, and the Anda- man Islands, each under a chief commissioner.

Of independent States there are only two, Bhutan and Nepaul, both in the Himalayas.' Of the protected States, Hyderabad (Deccan), Baroda, and Mysore are the most important, while the smaller ones are to a

KuTUB MiNAH, Delhi

great extent grouped together into Agencies, e.g., Rajputana, Kathiawar, Central India, etc. The chic^fs of these protected states retain their own internal administration, but under British supervision, which is exercised sometimes through political agents, in other cases by political residents. The princes have no right to make war or peace, or to send ambassadors to other states, or to maintain a military force beyond a certain specified limit; and the supreme govern- ment can exercise any degree of control in case of mis- govenunent; moreover, some of them are required to pay a fixed annual triliutc.

Fortugurad Iniliii. — TIk^ actual Portuguese posses- sions at the present time within the peninsula are Goa, Ilamao and Diu. Goa is a tract of picturesque and fertile country on the West Coast aliout 250 miles south of Bom!)ay, measuring 63 miles in length by 40 miles in breadth. It comprises a nucleus of "old coniiuests", Goa, Bardez, and Salcete (to be distin- guished from the Island of Salsette near Bombay) ; an outer belt of "new conquests"; and the Island of Angediva. The population borders on half a million; the majority are native Catholics whose ancestors were converted centuries ago. Freedom of religion is tol- erated, but no public form o£ worship other than the

Catholic is admitted within the "old conquests". Goa is regarded as an integral part of the Portuguese Empire, and (with its two dependencies, Damao and Diu) forms a province subject to a Governor- General. Damao, 100 miles north of Bombay, a for- tified Portuguese town with a small outlying district in the interior, has an area of 82 square miles with a total population of over .50,000. Diu is a small forti- fied island at the southern point of the Kathiawar coast, measuring about 7 miles by 2, with a population of something over 12,000. (For ecclesiastical par- ticulars see under Go.\ and Da.mao).

French India. — The French possessions consist of five settlements. Of these Pondicherry is the chief, having an area of 115 square miles and a population of about 150,000. Next comes Karikal with 5:5 square miles and 26,000 inhabitants. The rest are much smaller, namely, Chandernagore, near Calcutta, Mahe, on the Malabar coast, and Yanaon, north of Madras, the total area of French India being 203 square miles, with a total population of aljout 300,000. In British territory round about Pondicherry, etc., there are also a number of small plots, the sites of former French factories, over which the French possess certain rights. Administration is in the hands of a governor residing at Pondicherry. (For ecclesiastical particulars see Pondicherry, Archdiocese of.)

The Government and the People. — There has arisen in India of recent years a wave of national as- piration, which is by some viewed with alarm, and ]>y others with indifTerence. It originated or first mani- fested itself by the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1SS6, which began to hold annual meetings wherein " to give voice to our aspirations and to for- mulate our wants" (Gokhalein 1905). In 1904 a party- protest against the partition of Bengal was followed by an attempt to force the hand of Government by the boycott of imported goods in favour of Indian manufactures (Swadeshi movement), which in turn developed into an effort after "national revival". This movement issued in a certain amount of seditious writing, systematic spread of disaffection among the masses, and even resort to anarchistic methods such as the use of bombs, etc. Given that the element of sedition and violence is suppressed with a firm hand, the movement does not (in the present writer's opin- ion) forebode anything like a mutiny, or jeopardize British dominion. But in its constitutional elements, which are based on democratic ideas derived from European education, it will have to be reckoned with. Viewed in this light, it means that an ever-increasing number of Hindus, who have been educated on Eng- lish lines and many of them in English universities, realize keenly their position as British subjects, claim equality with Europeans in talent, education, and citizenship, seek to be admitted more extensively to Government offices, aim at a representative instead of an autocratic form of government, demand financial autonomy for the country, etc., etc., and are endeav- ouring to develop public opinion in favour of all these points, fir.st among their own class, and then among the community in general. No one can quarrel with this aspiration so long as it is worked on constitu- tional lines, and in a measure calculated to promote the real welfare of the country. The practical diffi- culty arises from the fact that while m the eyes of most Europeans the country is not yet ripe for such measures, the promoters of the movement either believe that it is ripe, or else that by pushing the matter the coimtry can be made ripe far sooner than if matters are left alone. This seems a fair and mod- erate view of the movement, putting aside the more extreme tendencies connected with it. \\'ith regard to the policy of Government in dealing with the situa- tion, account must be taken of the tendency of the Oriental mind to respect power and to take advantage of good nature. Anything like leniency or long-