Allan Octavian Hume, C.B./Appendix III
APPENDIX III
LORD DUFFERIN'S RESOLUTION ON HINDU REFORMS
A Letter from Mr. Hume to Mr. M. B. Malahari
You ask me what I think of the Government Resolution.
I think it a capital one — all you could possibly desire in the present position of the question and more than you could, I think, have expected.
The entire question has been thoroughly thrashed out all over the whole Empire. All that can be said upon the question has now been put on record, either in the papers collected by the Government of India from all the several Provinces, which they are now about to publish, or in the many letters which you have elicited from all sorts and conditions of men, which you doubtless will also soon publish. There will no longer be, for any one who will study the exhaustive all-sided discussion of the case embodied in these two "collections," any possibility of doubt as to the facts. Action will be no longer fettered by the fear that there may lurk unknown difficulties.
The whole thing has been made clear — exaggerations of both sides brought thus face to face will neutralize each other, and the sober facts of the case will stand out clear and simple.
That two of the most, complicated and controverted problems of social reform, which for at least a quarter of a century have engaged in a desultory fashion the minds of the public, should thus in three short years have been cleared of all misconceptions and misrepresentation and reduced to their simplest elements, is a great work and one for which the country will, hereafter, I feel sure, be adequately grateful to you.
One thing is now certain — all the best and wisest men in this Empire, without distinction of race, creed or colour, are at one with you as regards the absolute necessity of the great Social Reforms which you advocate.
It is only as to your methods that differences of opinion and, I think, some, misconceptions exist.
You are believed generally to advocate coercive legislation which neither I myself nor, I believe, the majority of Indians are at all prepared to accept. But if I now rightly understand you, all you really look forward to is legislation of an enabling and permissive character. Now even for this the time does not seem to me to be altogether ripe, but I see no reason why, if the agitation be properly kept up and a conviction of the disadvantages of the existing system be steadily forced home to a larger and larger number of minds, something of the kind might not properly b< conceded in a few years.
This is how I view the question : If A chooses to marry widow, or to keep his sons unmarried to eighteen or twenty and his daughters unmarried till they are thirteen, or even fifteen, or seventeen, B, C and D must always be left at liberty to cut A in their individual and private capacities but this is a different thing from B, C, and D combining as a Pnnchayet, not merely to cut A, but to threaten E and F, who sympathize with A that if they do not straightway cut their friend A they will put them also out of caste.
That A's right of private judgment in such matters and h fortiori E's and F's should be protected by " enabling" legislation, appears to me to be by no means too much to hope for. I myself see no reason why when public opinion ripens on the subjects, the legislature should not prohibit Punchayeis from putting persons out of caste on these grounds, while leaving it free to every individual member of any community to cut or drop any or every other member thereof in his private capacity, as may seem good to him. In my opinion, this is the legislation you should aim at, and the only legislation that could ever be necessary or justifiable. But even this legislation you cannot expect from a Govern- ment entirely composed of foreigners. Were I Viceroy at this moment with virtually only European colleagues, I should reply to you just as Lord Dufferin has done, viz., that Government is not in a position to legislate on such subjects. But as soon as we have a strong independent representative element in all our Councils, the situation will be altogether changed, and whenever and wherever a considerable majority of Indian Representatives press for permissive legis- lation of the character above indicated, then and there, be sure that Government will cease to oppose it. And I confess that until we have such representatives and until these support and press for such a measure, I see little prospect of your obtaining any legislative sanction for the efforts of the Social Reform Party. Now it is to secure this represen- tation that the National or Political Reform Party are straining every nerve, and you and your party, if they are wise, will second their efforts with the heartiest good will. Together we must all rise or together be plunged in the existing Slough of Despond.
It is grievous to find honest patriots working in other lines, because they dissent from some of your methods instead of merely controverting these, descending to attribute to you unworthy motives and to attack you personally, than whom (whatever errors you may possibly have fallen into) a more earnest or honest lover of India and her people does not, I believe (and I speak after many years' knowledge of you) exist.
I know that some who attack you thus do not really mean all they say, but merely hope (and a very vain hope it is) to keep you quiet. They say, *' Confound the fellow, why can't he keep quiet : what we want first and foremost is political enfranchisement, the fuss he keeps making about his widows, etc., tends to sow dissensions in our camp, and to direct the public mind from the more important work we have in hand, and in regard to which there is really no difference of opinion amongst us."
But this involves a double mistake. In the first place, though v^e differ amongst ourselves as to v^idow re-marriage, there is nothing in such diversity of opinion to prevent our combining, if we are true patriots working unselfishly for our country^ s good, to press as one man for those representative institutions in regard to v^hich v^e are all agreed. In the second place no great political progress can ever be made unless a somev^hat corresponding progress is being made in all other lines. One man must take up political, another social, another mental, another moral, another physical reform. And no one man or body of men can v^ork too hard at, or make too much fuss over, his or their special line of reform, since push ahead as far as he or they may, they v^rill only stimulate the champions of other causes to greater exertions and probably to still further advance in their special lines, and thus only amidst this generous rivalry of well doing in a dozen different directions will the nation grow and develop symmetrically in greatness and goodness. Every true son of India, however much he may differ from you as to methods, knows well that the reforms you aim at are noble and necessary ones, and every true son of India ought to feel it to be a sin against his country to say an unkind word against, or attribute the smallest unworthy motive to, one who is struggling so earnestly and unselfishly to advance in one direction that country's cause. I myself have devoted my life to political reform, but I none the less reverence those good and high-minded men who are every- where (though all too few in numbers) labouring to raise-, the moral tone of the people, none the less sympathize with?! those learned and highly-cultured men who are striving to promote their education, or with those hearty honest men who desire by promoting athletic sports and games to raise their physique, and a fortiori is my heart none the less with those earnest and unselfish workers who, like yourself, are giving their lives to the cause of social reform. I can under- stand our differing amongst ourselves as to matters of practice, as to what should first be done and how to set about it, but I cannot understand such differences degene- rating into personal injustice and ill-will ; I cannot under- stand anything but brotherly love and mutual sympathy between the co-workers in different lines in this one great national cause.
I say God bless all who are working for India.