INDIAN HOME RULE
SIR,—I have followed with interest Dr. Shahani's and others' recent articles on India. I have not had the privilege of having read articles on the subject for forty years as is claimed by Mr. J. W. Meares in his letter in your last issue. Perhaps Dr. Shahani will be best able to elucidate the points raised by Mr. J. W. Meares, but his whole letter is revealing of certain traits. Most officials live in a hybrid world in India and in the one or two decades of official routine their mind becomes stratified. It is well known that " I.C.S.-wallahs " soon lose all individuality and develop Anglo-Indian complexes. Their frustration expresses itself as a reaction against many a Jew in the Indian environment.
In what he says of the "less educated Mohammedans," Mr. J. W. Meares implies that intelligence in the Indian acts adversely on his character and that ruling capacity is the prerogative of the chosen few. Every intelligent student of history can see that the Princes and other feudal institutions in India have been preserved by an alien rule in its own interests. Any vitalising social-economic change will remove such anachronisms and not transfer power into their hands, as suggested by Mr. Meares.
It is rather unusual to find a reader of The Spectator airing such
non-constructive views.—Yours, &c., R. H. B. College of Technology, Manchester.
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