The Silent India Being Tales and Sketches of the Masses BY LIEUT.-COL. S. J. THOMSON, C.I.E. INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE (RETIRED) WITH ILLUSTRATIONS William Blackwood and Sons 1913 ALL RIGHts reserVED PREFACE. INDIA, with its over three hundred millions of inhabitants, of different races, castes, creeds, and occupations, and with its varieties of climate, geographical configuration, &c., presents a subject with which no single work, however extensive, can adequately deal. It would be almost as reasonable to write in a similar manner upon Europe, for races in India differ quite as much from one another as they do in the latter continent; and, moreover, there is apparent in the East a cleavage between the urban and rural populations in the same area, which is far more definitely marked than in the West. There are indeed two Indias: the India of the large towns from which the casual visitor draws his impressions, and which with considerable clamour voices the aspirations of perhaps a tenth of the total population of the country; and the India- the real India - of the silent millions who lead a simple rural life, contented with the thoughts and occupations of their forefathers, inherited from the distant past. This is the population of which only the experienced Anglo-Indian has any real cognisance, and it is from long contact with this that he principally derives those feelings of kindliness and sympathy which make for friendship and esteem between the races. In We are accustomed in Europe to regard the voice of the great centres of population in most matters as that of the people generally, but it would be unwise to adopt this idea as regards our great dependency, for opinion and sentiment, though unexpressed, may be very strong and deep-rooted, and it is as well to grasp the fact that there is a great gulf fixed between the views of the urban and rural communities on many very weighty and important points. India, education, such as it is (only ten per cent of the male population, and one per cent of the female population, can read and write), is principally confined to towns; and meagre though this amount may appear, it nevertheless has considerable influence in leavening thoughts and ideas in such localities. But the population in the villages is probably one of the most illiterate and simple-minded in the world. |