India and the Indians

India is really waking up, but she is doing so in her own Indian way. For some years past it has been one of my daily duties to arouse an Indian boy, and I know exactly how an Indian wakes. It is a leisurely process. He slowly stretches his legs and rubs his eyes, and it is at least ten minutes before he can be said to be really wide awake. And every morning I have to say exactly the same thing: "Now remember, Felix, to say your prayers; then go and wash your hands and face, and then feed the pony." And if on any particular morning I were to leave this reminder unsaid, and Felix left any, or all of these duties, undone, and I were to ask him the reason, he would reply, "You did not tell me."

With India waking up, there never was a time when she stands more in need of some kindly person at her side to tell her what to do. She needs to be taught to say her prayers, because with the old religion gone and the True Faith dimly understood, India would be in the appalling condition of a great country without a religion. We need to tell her to wash her hands and face, because there are certain elementary matters of sanitation which must be attended to if India is ever to become a wholesome and prosperous country. And we have got to teach her how to work, because India wide awake, but idle, might easily become a source of great mischief.

Every Englishman who takes pleasure in the sense of Empire ought to realise that it brings with it great responsibilities, and therefore that every Englishman has a measure of responsibility towards India. We must be taking care that, if when she is wide awake she fails to fulfil her great vocation, at any rate she shall have no cause to utter against us the reproach, You never told me.

A better understanding of what India and the people who live in it are really like, seems to be the necessary preparation for sympathy and work of any sort connected with that country; and to help, in however small a degree, to bring about this end is the object of this book. I have had unusually favourable and varied opportunities for getting to know intimately the inner side of Indian life and character during a somewhat long residence in this country. The contents of the book are exceedingly miscellaneous because the daily experiences have been equally so. Everything that is told is the outcome of my own personal observations amongst a people to whom I am deeply attached, and I have taken the utmost pains to record nothing of which I was not sure, and to verify everything concerning which I was doubtful.

The photographs were all taken by Brother Arthur of our Society.

EDWARD F. ELWIN.

YERANDAWANA,

POONA DISTRICT, INDIA.

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CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY 1

II. INDIAN HOSPITALITY 11

III. THE INDIAN VIEW OF NATURE AND ARCHITECTURE 17

IV. INDIAN EMPLOYEES OF LABOUR 24

V. THE INDIAN POSTAL SERVICE 32

VI. INDIANS AND ENGLISH CUSTOMS 40

VII. INDIAN UNPUNCTUALITY 48

VIII. INDIAN POVERTY 54

IX. INDIAN ART 60

X. THE INDIAN VILLAGE 66

XI. INDIAN ENTERTAINMENTS 74

XII. THE CONVERSION OF INDIA 83

XIII. MISSION WORK IN INDIA 89

XIV. INDIAN MUSIC 98

XV. INDIAN MEALS 105

XVI. HINDU PHILOSOPHY 111

XVII. HINDUS AND RELIGION 117

XVIII. RELIGIOUS PHASES IN INDIA 124

XIX. GAMES IN INDIA 130

XX. INDIAN WRESTLERS 137

XXI. BOOKS IN INDIA 143

XXII. INDIAN PAGEANTS 151

XXIII. THE INDIAN CHARACTER 157

XXIV. RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY IN INDIA 164

XXV. WILD BEASTS IN INDIA 170

XXVI. SOME INDIAN ANIMALS 176

XXVII. THE INDIAN WORLD OF NATURE 182

XXVIII. INSECTS IN INDIA 188

XXIX. THE INDIAN ASCETIC 196

XXX. THE INDIAN WIDOW 204

XXXI. WRONGDOING IN INDIA 212

XXXII. PROPERTY IN INDIA 221

XXXIII. EAST AND WEST TRAVELLING 228

XXXIV. CUSTOMS OF EAST AND WEST 234