Second Afghan War. were War was averted, but the Penjdeh incident The Amir, Sher All, was found to be intriguing had called attention to a menace that was te with Russia and that fact, coupled with his be felt for nearly a generation more; it had repulse of a British mission led to the second also served to elicit from the Princes of India Afghan War. The British forces advanced by an unanimous offer of troops and money in case three routes-the Khyber, the Kurram, and of need. That offer bore fruit under the next the Bolan-and gained all the important van- Viceroy, Lord Lansdowne, when the present tage points of Eastern Afghanistan. Sher Ali system of Imperial Service Troops was orga fled and a treaty was made with his son Yakub nised. Under Lord Lansdowne's rule also the Khan, which was promptly broken by the defences of the North-Western Frontier murder of Sir Louis Cavagnari, who had been strengthened, on the advice of Sir Frederick sent as English envoy to Kabul. Further oper- (now Earl) Roberts, who was then Comman ations were thus necessary, and Sir F. (now der-in-Chief in India. Another form of preLord) Roberts advanced on the capital and cautionary measure against the continued defeated the Afghans at Charasia. A rising of aggression of Russia was taken by raising the the tribes followed, in spite of Sir D. Stewart's annual subsidy paid by the Indian Governvictory at Ahmed Kheyl and his advance from ment to the Amir from eight to twelve lakhs. Kabul to Kandahar. A pretender, Sirdar On the North-Eastern Frontier there occurred Ayub Khan, from Herat prevented the estab- (1891) in the small State of Manipur a revolulishment of peace, defeated Gen. Burrows' tion against the Raja that necessitated an brigade at Maiwand, and invested Kandahar. inquiry on the spot by Mr. Quinton the Chief He was routed in turn by Sir F. Roberts who Commissioner of Assam. Mr. Quinton, the made a brilliant march from Kabul to Kanda- commander of his escort, and others, were har After the British withdrawal fighting treacherously murdered in a conference and continued between Ayub Khan and Abdur the escort ignominiously retreated. This dis Rahman, but the latter was left undisputed Amir of Afghanistan until his death in 1901. In the meantime Lord Lytton had resigned (1880) and Lord Ripon was appointed Viceroy by the new Liberal Government. Lord Ripon's administration is memorable for the freedom given to the Press by the repeal of the Vernacular Press Act, for his scheme of local selfgovernment which developed municipal institutions, and for the attempt to extend the jurisdiction of the criminal courts in the Districts over European British subjects, independently of the race or nationality of the presiding judge. This attempt, which created a feeling among Europeans in India of great hostility to the Viceroy, ended in a compromise in 1884. Other reforms were the re-establishment of the Department of Revenue and Agriculture, the appointment of an Education Commission with a view to the spread of popular instruction on a broader basis, and the abolition by the Finance Minister (Sir Evelyn Baring, now Lord Cromer) of a number of customs duties. Lord Dufferin, who succeeded Lord Ripon in 1884, had to give his attention more to external than internal affairs: one of his first acts was to hold a durbar at Rawalpindi for the reception of the Amir of Afghanistan which resulted in the strengthening of British relations with that ruler. In 1885 a third Burmese war became necessary owing to the truculent attitude of King Thibaw and his intrigues with foreign Powers. The expedition, under General Prendergast, occupied Mandalay without difficulty and King Thibaw was exiled to Ratnagiri, where he died on 16th December 1916. His dominions of Upper Burma were annexed to British India on the 1st of January, 1886. grace to British arms led to several attacks on frontier outposts which were brilliantly defeated. Manipur was occupied by British troops and the government of the State was reorganised under a Political Agent. Lord Lansdowne's term of office was distinguished by several other events, such as the passing of the Parliamentary Act (Lord Cross's Act, 1892), which increased the size of the Legisla tive Councils as well as the number of nonofficials in them: legislation aimed at social and domestic reform among the Hindus: and the closing of the Indian Mints to the free coinage of silver (1893). In Burma great progress was made, under Sir Alexander Mackenzie, as Chief Commissioner: comparative order was established, and large schemes for the construction of railways, roads, and irrigation works were put in hand. (The Province was made a Lieutenant-Governorship in 1897). Frontier Campaigns. Lord Elgin, who succeeded Lord Lansdowne in 1894, was confronted at the outset with a deficit of Rs. 2 crores, due to the fall in exchange. (In 1895 the rupee fell as low as 18. 1d.) To meet this the old five per cent. import duties were reimposed on a number of commodities, but not on cotton goods: and within the year the duty was extended to piece-goods, but not to yarn. The reorganisation of the Army, which involved the abolition of the old system of Presidency Armies, had hardly been carried out when a number of risings occurred along the North-West Frontier. In 1895 the British Agent in Chitral-which had come under British influence two years previously when Sir H. M. Durand had demarcated the southern and eastern boundaries of Afghanistan-was besieged and had to be res Of greater importance at the time were the cued by an expeditionary force. Two years measures taken to meet a possible, and as it later the Wazirs, Swatis, and Mohmands atthen appeared a probable, attack on India by tacked the British positions in Malakand, and Russia. These preparations, which cost the Afridis closed the Khyber Pass. Peace over two million sterling, were hurried on was only established after a prolonged cambecause of a collision which occurred be- paign (the Tirah campaign) in which 40,000 tween Russian and Afghan troops at Penjdeh, troops were employed, and over 1,000 officers during the delimitation of the Afghan frontier and men had been lost. This was in itself a towards Central Asia, and which seemed likely heavy burden on the finances of India, which to lead to a declaration of war by Great Britain, was increased by the serious and widespread The Russian Menace. amine of 1896-97 and by the appearance in India of bubonic plague. The methods taken to prevent the spread of that disease led, in Bombay, to rioting, and elsewhere to the appearance in the vernacular press of seditious articles which made it necessary to make more stringent the law dealing with such writings. aristocratic families. In 1902 the British Government obtained from the Nizam a per petual lease of the Assigned Districts of Berar in return for an annual payment of 25 lakhs. The accession of King Edward VII was proclaimed in a splendid Durbar on January 1, 1903. In 1904 Lord Curzon returned to Lord Curzon's Viceroyalty. England for a few months but was re-appoint With famine and plague Lord Curzon also, ed to a second term of office, Lord Ampthill, who succeeded Lord Elgin in 1899, had to deal. Governor of Madras, having acted as Viceroy In 1901 the cycle of bad harvests came to an during his absence. The chief act of this second end; but plague increased, and in 1904 deaths term was the partition of Bengal and the creafrom it were returned at over one million. Of tion of a new Province of Eastern Bengal and the many problems to which Lord Curzon Assam-a reform, designed to remove the directed his attention, only a few can be men- systematic neglect of the trans-Gangetic areas tioned here: some indeed claim that his great- of Bengal, which evoked bitter and prolonged est work in India was not to be found in any criticism. In 1905 Lord Curzon resigned, one department but was in fact the general being unable to accept the proposals of Lord gearing up of the administration which he Kitchener for the re-adjustment of relations achieved by his unceasing energy and personal between the Army headquarters and the Miliexample of strenuous work. He had at once tary Department of the Government, and to turn his attention to the North-West Fron- being unable to obtain the support of the Home tier. The British garrisons beyond our boun- Government. Lord Curzon was succeeded by dary were gradually withdrawn and replaced Lord Minto, the grandson of a former Goverby tribal levies, and British forces were con- nor-General. It was a stormy heritage to which centrated in British territory behind them as Lord Minto succeeded, for the unrest which a support. An attempt was made to check had long been noticed developed in one the arms traffic and work on strategic railways direction into open sedition. The occasion of was pushed forward. The fact that in seven the outburst in Bengal was the partition of years he only spent a quarter of a million upon repressive measures and only found it necessary to institute one blockade (against the Mahsud Waziris) is the justification of this policy of compromise between the Lawrence and Forward schools of thought. In 1901 the transIndus districts of the Punjab were separated from that Province, and together with the political charges of the Malakand, the Khyber, Kurram, Tochi, and Wana were formed into the new North-West Frontier Province, under a Chief Commissioner directly responsible to the Government of India. That year also witnessed the death of Abdur Rahman, the Amir of Afghanistan, and the establishment of an understanding with his successor Habibllah. In 1904 the attitude of the Dalai Lama of Tibet being pro-Russian and anti-British, it became necessary to send an expedition to Lhasa under Colonel (Sir Francis) Younghusband. The Dalai Lama abdicated and a treaty was concluded with his successor. that province. The causes of the flood of seditious writings and speeches, of the many attempts at assassination, and of the boycott of British goods are less easily definable. The mainspring of the unrest was "a deep-rooted antagonism to all the principles upon which Western society, especially in a democratic country like England, has been built up." Outside Bengal attempts to quell the disaffection by the ordinary law were fairly successful. But scarcely any province was free from disorder of some kind and, though recourse was had to the deportation of persons without reason assigned under an Act of 1818, special Acts had to be passed to meet the situation, viz :— an Explosives Act, a Prevention of Seditious Meetings Act, and a Criminal Law Amendment Act which provides for a magisterial inquiry in private and a trial before three judges of the High Court without a jury. Concurrently with these legislative measures steps were taken to extend representative institutions. In 1907 a Hindu and a Mahomedan were appointed to the Secretary of State's Council, and in 1909 a Hindu was appointed for the first time to the Viceroy's Council. The Indian Councils Act of 1909 carried this policy farther by reconstituting the legislative councils and conferring upon them wider powers of discussion. The executive councils of Madras and Bombay were enlarged by the addition of an Indian member. In his first year of office Lord Curzon passed the Act which, in accordance with the recommendations of the Fowler Commission, practically fixed the value of the rupee at 18. 4d., and in 1900 a Gold Reserve fund was created. The educational reforms that marked this Viceroyalty are dealt with elsewhere: chief among them was the Act of 1904 reorganising the governing bodies of Indian Universities. Under the head of agrarian reform must be As regards foreign policy, Lord Minto's mentioned the Punjab Land Alienation Act, Viceroyalty was distinguished by the concludesigned to free the cultivators of the soil from sion (1907) between Great Britain and Russia the clutches of money-lenders, and the insti- of an agreement on questions likely to disturb tution of Agricultural banks. The efficiency the friendly relations of the two countries in of the Army was increased (Lord Kitchener Asia generally, and in Persia, Afghanistan and Was Commander-in-Chief) by the re-armament Tibet in particular. Two expeditions had to of the Indian Army, the strengthening of the artillery, and the reorganisation of the transport service. In his relations with the Feudatory Chiefs, Lord Curzon emphasized their position as partners in administration, and he founded the Imperial Cadet Corps to give a military education to the sons of ruling and be undertaken on the North-West frontier, against the Zakka Khels and the Mohmands; and ships of the East Indies Squadron were frequently engaged off Maskat and in the Persian Gulf in operations designed to check the traffic in arms through Persia and Mekran to the frontier of India. Visit of the King and Queen. Sir Charles (Lord) Hardinge was appointed to succeed Lord Minto in 1910. His first year in India was marked by the visit to India of the King Emperor and the Queen, who arrived at Bombay on December 2, 1911. From there they proceeded to Delhi where, in the most magnificent durbar ever held in India, the coronation was proclaimed and various boons, including an annual grant of 50 lakhs for popular education, were announced. At the same ceremony His Majesty announced the transfer of the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi: the reunion of the two Bengals under a Governorin-Council: the formation of a new LieutenantGovernorship for Behar, Chota Nagpur and Orissa and the restoration of Assam to the charge of a Chief Commissioner. renewal of political discussion and agitation which had to a great extent been in abeyanc during the early years of the war. deaths Distar to the Early in 1919 prolonged strikes in Bombar and elsewhere showed that India, though corparatively little affected by the economic r sults of the war, was confronted by industris and economic problems which were none the less grave. The gravity of those problems was creased by the ravages of influenza which supposed to have caused 6,000,000 during the winter months of 1917-18. bances broke out in April as a sequel passive resistance movement against the Rowla!! Act (the Satyagraha Movement) which pro duced a situation to which there has been no parallel since the Mutiny. It is sufficient! here to state that in Ahmedabad. Viramgan.{ In August, 1913, the demolition of a lavatory Delhi, Lat ore, Amritsar, Gujranwalla and other, attached to a mosque in Cawnpore was made the places the crowd, by attacking life and pro occasion of an agitation among Indian Mahome-perty and by train wrecking and tearing dans and a riot in Cawnpore led to heavy loss of life. Of those present at the rict, 106 were put on trial but subsequently released by the Viceroy before the case reached the Sessions, and His Excellency was able to settle the mosque difficulty by a compromise that was acceptable to the local and other Mahomedans. Still more serious trouble occurred in September, 1914, when a riot at Budge-Budge among a number of Sikh emigrants returned from Canada gave a foretaste of the revolutionary plans entertained by those men. The sequel, revealed in two conspiracy trials at Lahore, showed that the "Ghadr conspiracy was widespread and had been consistently encouraged by Germany. Lord Chelmsford as Viceroy. Lord Hardinge, whose great services had been rewarded with the Knighthood of the Garter, left India in 1916 and was succeeded by Lord Chelmsford, whose tenure of office was destined to be one of the most eventful in the modern history of India. The part played by India in the war was developed in every possible way. Not only was the Indian Army increased but the resources of the country were developed with the help of the Munitions Board and India assumed responsibility for 100 millions of the war debt. The share of India in the Imperial! burden of the war was emphasised in another and very significant way by her representation in the Imperial War Cabinet in London by His Highness the Maharaja of Bikaner and Sir S. P. (Lord) Sinha. On the Frontier, where there had been numerous though comparatively slight disturbances in 1914-15, a punitive expedition had to be undertaken against the Mahsuds In 1917 Mr. Montagu, who had succeeded Mr. Chamberlain as Secretary of State, carried out the latter's intention of visiting India. The result of the visit was shown in the following year when a report was issued containing what is known as the joint scheme of reform evolved by the Secretary of State and the Viceroy. Shortly after this report there was issued a report by the Special Committee of Inquiry, over which Mr. Justice Rowlatt presided, into seditious crime in India. That report and the legislation which followed in consequence of it, together with the announcement of the proposed reform scheme, led to a railway lines and telegraph wires, provoked a situation which could only be met by the proclamation of martial law and the enforcement of military measures for the protection of law abiding subjects and for the suppression ef disorder. Exaggerated reports of those riots and of the effect of the Rowlatt Act may be presumed to have had some influence on the Amir of Afgha nistan when he declared war and invaded British territory. Amir Habibullah Khan, whe had been loyal to his treaty obligations through out the war, was murdered in February and, after a brief occupation of the throne by his brother Nasrulla Khan, his son Amanulla bad been declared Amir. A sequel to this war was the renewal of trouble along a great part of the North Western frontier where the tribesmet who had at first appeared to be impressed b the British successes, took the offensive against our advance posts especially in southern War ristan. The operations which necessarily fol lowed and the severity of the fighting were on a scale never previously reached in frontier war, I and made the campaign of unusual length The Government of India Bill, embodying Mr. Montagu's proposals for the popularisation of the system of Government, was passed in December The next year, 1920, more than any which preceded it, was distinguished by political agita tion. The cause of this was in part the indigna tion created by the facts disclosed in the report of the Hunter Commission on the outbreaks of 1919 in the Punjab and elsewhere, and the timulus given to the Khilafat agitation by the terms of the Peace treaty with Turkey. Lord Reading's Viceroyalty. The fruits of agitation were reaped in plenty in 1921, the first year of Lord Reading's term of! Murderous office. outbreaks at Malegaon. Dharwar and elsewhere were followed by a rebellion of the Moplahs in Malabar which as sumed the most serious proportions and necessi tated prolonged military operations. It had been arranged that H. R. H. the Prince of Wales should visit India at the end of 1920, and should open the new Councils in 1921, but for reasons of health, that visit had to be postponed; and H. R. H. the Duke of Connaught came to India early in 1921 in order to ope the new Councils. The Prince's visit took place in 1921-29 and was essentially non-political. The enthusiasm with which the Prince was voluntarily abdicated. Somewhat ludicrously reeted during his tour was very marked. the Akalis turned him into a martyr. and the But simultaneously with the loyal display riots movement became sufficiently formidable for roke out in more than one of the cities which both the Akali Dal and the Shrines Committee e visited. But after the imprisonment of some to be declared illegal associations. Many arf the leading agitators in the arly part of 1922 rests were made; but, owing to the lack of he country enjoyed comparative quiet, except unity in the extremist camp, an attempt of the n the Punjab where the Akali movement mong Congress to secure a!! India support for the Akahe Sikhs, which bad started as a puritan reli- lis had a meagre result. pious movement, developed into a political movement attended by constant and wide spread disorder. The enhanced position of India in the Empire and the position of India as a nation entering actively into the work of the League of Nations, were emphasised during the year by the tour of the Dominions undertaken by the Hon. S. Sastri. The Salt Tax. Early in 1923 a great deal of criticism was excited by Lord Reading's certification of the doubling of the salt tax, under the powers conferred by the Reformed constitution, in opposition to the clearly expressed will of the Legislative Assembly. Objection was taken to this step, not so much because an increase in the Salt Tax had always been looked upon as a measure to which resort should be made only in grave emergencies, as because the financial powers of the elected chambers, much emphasised in the Montagu-Chelmsford Report. were thus shown to be capable of restriction. Break up of non-co-operation. Two cause combined during the year to Weaken the position of the extremists. The first was the split in the Congress, the second the rise of communal feeling between Hindus and Mahomedans. The Congress split was brought about by Mr. C. R. Das, who, realising 30 doub that Mr. Gandhi had failed and it was unlikely that any other man would have greater success by a rigid adherence to his methods, declared in favour of standing for the Councils. During the year there were an unusual num. ber of frontier outrages. Several officers were shot, and worldwide attention was attracted by the kidnapping of Molly Ellis. after the murder of her mother, and by her heroic rescue by Mrs. Starr. Coupled with the slow rate of progress of the operations in Waziristan, these continued incidents provoked some comment. There was also a sensational revival of the pre-war anarchical societies in Bengal, but the range of their achievements was small. Mr. Gandhi's Release. Mr. Gandhi's premature release from Yerowda jail in consequence of an operation for appendicitis temporarily revived the drooping hopes of the extremists, but any idea that he would organize another huge anti-Government movement was rapidly shattered. The breach between him and Mr. Das steadily widened and the belief of Hindu politicians in Mr. Gandhi's common sense diminished though their esteem for his character remained as high as ever. Moreover the feeling between Hindus and Mahomedans which had suddenly appeared the previous year darkened the whole face of the country. With the abolition of the Khilafat by Mustapha Kemal in March the raison d'etre of the famous pact between Mr. Gandhi and the Alis was destroyed and animosity no longer felt the restraint of political expediency. The Hindu conversion and organization movements of Shuddhi and Sangathan were opposed by exactly parallel Mahomedan movements, Tabligh and Tanzim; rumours were frequent The other cause was the disappearance of the that some mysterious All-India Mahomedan surface unity between Hindus and Maho- clique was planning aggressive action against medans which Mr. Gandhi. helped by strong Hindus; and excitement was brought to fever feeling among Mahomedans on the Turkish heat by the riots in the Frontier Province, question, had temporarily contrived. The the Punjab, the United Provinces, Delhi. Calsplit was followed by the formation of cutta, the Central Provinces and Hyderabad two pan-Hindu movements: the Shuddhi which broke out during the autumn season of movement, announced by Swami Shradhanand, which aimed at the re-conversion to Hinduism of the Malkhana Rajputs and other low class occupants of the fringe of Islam, and the Sangathan movement of which Pandit Malaviya was the sponsor and which aimed at teaching Hindus physical exercises and sword play, so that they might be the better able to protect themselves. These two movements greatly irritated the Mahomedans, and during the year here were between fifteen and twenty serious Hindu-Mahomedan riots, occurring in all parts of India. Violent Movements. religious festivals. In September Mr. Gandhi In the Punjab the Akali movement showed brains of non-co-operation followed Mr. Das into the Councils. The programme announced by Mr. Das was to wreck the Reforms, and in this ambition he was reasonably near success. Obstructive tactics effected the resignation of the Ministers in the Central Provinces and Bengal and left these two provin ces to be administered by Governors without democratic help, but in other parts of India the Councils did well in the circumstances. Underground the revolutionary movement continued. A series of assassinations took place in Bengal, and Mr. Das incurred bitter criticism by associating himself with a tribute to the murderer of an inoffensive Englishman in Cal cutta. The third attempt to climb Everest came very near to success. Á height 600 feet from the top was reached, but in an effort to accomplish the last stretch Mallory and Irvine were killed. It was not established whether they had or had not reached the top. India in 1925 and 1926. In 1925 the extremists received a sad blow by the death of Mr. C. R. Das, leader of the Swarajist Party. His death took the Party completely aback, and the counsel of Mr. Gandhi had to be sought in order to deal with this disastrous situation. Mr. Gandhi sent an invitation to Arabindo Ghose, a Bengali litterateur and reputed thaumaturge who since the assassinations of 1908 and 1909 has been living on French territory at Pondicherry, to take command of the Swarajist band. Mr. Ghose declined with thanks, and the lot thereupon fell upon Mr. Sen Gupta, a Bengali politician of whom for the rest of the year little was heard outside Bengal. From this point the falling away of Swarajists from the old austere principle of ruthless and irreconcilable obstruction proceeded apace. First Mr. Tambe, a Swarajist in the Central Provinces, accepted an Executive Councillorship from the alien Government, next Mr. Patel, a Bombay Swarajist, took the Presidential chair in the Assembly and expressed his readiness if necessary to meet the Viceroy nine times a day, and then others in Bombay and the Central Provinces adopted the policy of responsive co-operation "-a phrase denoting a critical attitude towards Government coupled with readiness in certain circumstances to receive a lucrative post from Government. The political sky, in fact, brightened considerably. by the extremists to persuade or compel the President, the Hon. Mr. V. J. Patel, formerly Deputy Leader of the Swarajist party in the House, to accompany the move by quitting the chair. Had he done so, there would have been an awk. ward constitutional crisis. But Mr. Patel refus ed and the demonstration fell flat. The same may be said of corresponding efforts in the Provincial Councils. But the outstanding political feature of th year was the profound aggravation of the tension and bitterness between the Hindu and Moslen communities. This resulted in grave riots is Calcutta and in similar disturbances, less only in magnitude, in numerous smaller centres in Upper India. This increase of communal troncarried on by leaders of political opinion in pre ble was directly associated with the propaganda paration for and in connection with the General Elections. The elections themselves were marked by no riotous outbreak of importance, but they were largely fought on communal lines, not only as between Hindus and Moslems but as between Brahmins and non-Brahmins, and on lines of local personal and sectional rivalries. Nowhere did candidates of public policy nor appeal to the voters on broad grounds of the great constitutional issue and of the even was much heard appeals made by the Secretary of State and suc cal classes to work the existing Constitution in cessive Viceroys for the co-operation of all politi preparation for the next constitutional inquiry required by statute. An important development during the year was the presentation in August by the Royal Commission on Currency and Exchange of a report recommending that the functions hitherto exercised by Government in connection with these matters should in future be carried out by the newly instituted Indian Reserve Bank, that the Gold Standard Reserve and the Paper Cur rency Reserve should be amalgamated for the purpose and that there should be instituted a new Gold Bullion Standard, with the rupee exchange ratio fixed at 18. 6d. gold. The Government of India, at the autumn session of their legislature, immediately after the issue of the report, announced their acceptance of the Commission's recommendation with regard to the exchange ratio and introduced a bill to give effect to it. Simla spent the cold weather carrying on its investigations in the Provinces. Another event of great importance to Indian economic welfare during the year was the The principal event of the year in India was appointment early in the year and the arrival in the arrival in April of Lord Irwin as Viceroy, on India, in August, of a Royal Commission to inthe retirement of Lord Reading from that office. quire into questions concerning the improvement Indian political history during 1926 was a of Indian agriculture. This body, consisting of record of continuous improvement in the outlook. both English and Indian members, had as its PreThe Swarajists in the Indian Legislative Assem-sident Lord Linlithgow and after preliminary meetings in bly proved to be of less account than in any session since their first entry into that body in January 1924. Their prestige similarly diminished in the Provincial Legislative Councils, where they had hitherto enjoyed dominating power. The proximity of the General Elections to all the legislatures in the autumn of the year filled them with the desire of some dramatic effort to catch the imagination of the constituencies and they consequently organised spectacular "walks-out" from the legislatures. The first took place in the Legislative Assembly. Every effort short of physical coercion was employed Events in 1927. Tension between the Hindu and Mahomedan communities continued during 1927 and was marked by several outbreaks of violence which drew from H. E. the Viceroy more than one weighty pronouncement and an offer to preside at a conference on the subject if the leaders of the two communities thought that any good purpose could thereby be served. More than one vain attempt was made, as in previous 1 |