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"Excepting, I suppose, Mahommedans, and the Christians?" said
Pagett, quick to use his recent
instruction.

"These are some mere exceptions to the universal rule."

"But the people outside the College, the working classes, the
agriculturists; your father and
mother, for instance."

"My mother," said the young man, with a visible effort to bring
himself to pronounce the word,
"has no ideas, and my father is not agriculturist, nor working class;
he is of the Kayeth caste; but
he had not the advantage of a collegiate education, and he does not
know much of the Congress.
It is a movement for the educated young-man"
-connecting adjective and noun in a sort of vocal hyphen.

"Ah, yes," said Pagett, feeling he was a little off the rails, "and
what are the benefits you expect
to gain by it?"

"Oh, sir, everything. England owes

260
WORKS OF RUDYARD KIPLING

its greatness to Parliamentary institutions, and we should at once
gain the same high position in
scale of nations. Sir, we wish to have the sciences, the arts, the
manufactures, the industrial
factories, with steam engines, and other motive powers and public
meetings, and debates.
Already we have a debating club in connection with the college,
and elect a Mr. Speaker. Sir,
the progress must come. You also are a Member of Parliament and
worship the great Lord
Ripon," said the youth, breathlessly, and his black eyes flashed as
he finished his commaless
sentences.

"Well," said Pagett, drily, "it has not vet occurred to me to worship
his Lord-ship, although I
believe he is a very worthy man, and I am not sure that England
owes quite all the things you
name to the House of Commons. You see, my young friend, the
growth of a nation like ours is
slow, subject to many influences, and if you have read your history
aright"-"Sir. I know it all-all!
Norman

Conquest, Magna Charta, Runnymede,
Reformation, Tudors, Stuarts, Mr.
Milton and Mr. Burke, and I have read
something of Mr. Herbert Spencer and

Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall,' Reynolds'

Mysteries of the Court,' and"-~)agett felt lite one who had pulled
the string of a shower-bath unawares, and hastened to stop the
torrent with a qtlestion as to what
particular grievances of the people of India the attention of an
elected assembly should be first
directed. But young Mr. Dma Nath was slow to particularize.
There were many, very many
demanding consideration. Mr. Pagett would like to hear of one or
two typical examples.
The Repeal of the Arms Act was at last named, and the student
learned for the first time that a
license was necessary before an Englishman could carry a gun in
England. Then natives of India
ought to be allowed to become Volunteer Riflemen if they chose,
and the absolute equality of
the Oriental with his European fellow-subject in civil status should
be proclaimed on principle,
and the Indian Army should be considerably reduced. The student
was not, however, prepared
with answers to Mr. Pagett's mildest questions on these points, and
he returned to vague
generalities, leaving the M.P. so much impressed with the crudity
of his views that he was glad
on Orde's return to say good-bye to his "very interesting" young
friend.

"What do you think of young India?" asked Orde.

"Curious, very curious-and callow."

"And yet," the civilian replied, "one can scarcely help
sympathizing with him for his mere
youth's sake. The young orators of the Oxford Union arrived at the
same conclusions and
showed doubtless just the same enthusiasm. If there were any
political analogy between India
and England, if the thousand races of this Empire were one, if
there were any chance even of
their learning to speak one language, if, in short, India were a
Utopia of the debating-room, and
not a real land, this kind of talk might be worth listening to, but it
is all based on false analogy
and ignorance of the facts."

"But he is a native and knows the facts."

"He is a sort of English schoolboy, but married three years, and the
father


THE ENLIGHTENMENTS OF PAGETT, M.P.
26.

of two weaklings, and knows less than most English schoolboys.
You saw all he is and knows,
and such ideas as he has acquired are directly hostile to the most
cherished convictions of the
vast majority of the people."

"But what does he mean by saying he is a student of a mission
college? Is he a Christian?"

"He meant just what he said, and he is not a Christian, nor ever
will he be. Good people in
America, Scotland and England, most of whom would never
dream of collegiate education for
their own sons, are pinching themselves to bestow it in pure waste
on Indian youths. Their
scheme is an oblique, subterranean attack on heathenism; the
theory being that with the jam of
secular education, leading to a University degree, the pill of moral
or religious instruction may
he coaxed down the heathen gullet."

"But does it succeed; do they make converts?"

"They make no converts, for the subtle Oriental swallows the jam
and rejects the pill; but the
mere example of the sober, righteous, and godly lives of the
principals and professors who are
most excellent and devoted men, must have a certain moral value.
Yet, as Lord Lansdowne
pointed out the other day, the market is dangerously overstocked
with graduates of our
Universities who look for employment in the administration. An
immense number are
employed, but year by year the college mills grind out increasing
lists of youths foredoomed to
failure and disappointment, and meanwhile, trade. manufactures.
and the industrial
arts are neglected, and in fact regarded with contempt by our new
literary mandarins in posse."

"But our young friend said he wanted steam-engines and
factories," said Pagett.

"Yes, he would like to direct such concerns. He wants to begin at
the top, for manual labor is
held to be discreditable, and he would never defile his hands by
the apprenticeship which the
architects, engineers, and manufacturers of England cheerfully
undergo; and he would be aghast
to learn that the leading names of industrial enterprise in England
belonged a generation or two
since, or now belong, to men who wrought with their own hands.
And, though he talks glibly of
manufacturers, he refuses to see that the Indian manufacturer of
the future will be the despised
workman of the present. It was proposed, for example, a few
weeks ago, that a certain
municipality in this province should establish an elementary
technical school for the sons of
workmen. The stress of the opposition to the plan came from a
pleader who owed all he had to a
college education bestowed on him gratis by Government and
missions. You would have fancied
some fine old crusted Tory squire of the last generation was
speaking. 'These people,' he said,
'want no education, for they learn their trades from their fathers,
and to teach a workman's son
the elements of mathematics and physical science would give him
ideas above his business.
They must be kept in their place, and it was idle to imagine that
there was any science in wood
or iron work.' And he carried his point. But the Indian workman
will rise in

202
WORKS OF RUDYARD KIPLING

the social scale in spite of the new literary caste."

"In England we have scarcely begun to realize that there is an
industrial class in this country, yet,
I suppose, the example of men, like Edwards for instance, must
tell," said Pagett, thoughtfully.

"That you shouldn't know much about it is natural enough, for
there are but few sources of
information. India in this, as in other respects, is like a badly kept
ledger-not written up to date.
And men like Edwards are, in reality, missionaries, who by precept
and example are teaching
more lessons than they know. Only a few, however, of their
crowds of subordinates seem to care
to try to emulate them, and aim at individual advancement; the rest
drop into the ancient Indian
caste gr('ove."

"How do you mean?" asked ~ "Well, it is found that the new
railway and factory workmen, the
fitter, the smith, the engine-driver, and the rest are already forming
separate hereditary castes.
You may notice this down at Jamalpur in Bengal, one of the oldest
railway centres; and at other
places, and in other industries, they are following the same
inexorable Indian law."

"Which means?"~ueried Pagett.

"It means that the rooted habit of the people is to gather in small
self-contained, self-sufficing
family groups with no thought or care for any interests but their
own-a habit which is scarcely
compatible with the right acceptation of the elective principle."

"Yet you must admit, Orde, that though our young friend was not
able to expound tbe f~ith that
is in him, your Indian army is too big."

"Not nearly big enough for its main purpose. And, as a side issue,
there are certain powerful
minorities of fighting folk whose interests an Asiatic Government
is bound to consider. Arms is
as much a means of livelihood as civil employ under Government
and law. And it would be a
heavy strain on British bayonets to hold down Sikhs, Jats, Bilochis,
Rohillas, Rajputs, Bhils,
Dogras, Pahtans, and Gurkbas to abide by the decisions of a
numerical majority opposed to their
interests. Leave the 'numerical majority' to itself without the
British bayonets-a flock of sheep
might as reasonably hope to manage a troop of collies."

"This complaint about excessive growth of the army is akin to
another contention of the
Congress party. They protest against the malversation of the whole
of the moneys raised by
additional taxes as a Famine Insurance Fund to other purposes.
You must be aware that this
special Famine Fund has all been spent on frontier roads and
defences and strategic railway
schemes as a protection against Russia."

"But there was never a special famine fund raised by special
taxation and put by as in a box.
No sane administrator would dream of such a thing. In a time of
prosperity a finance minister,
rejoicing in a margin, proposed to annually apply a million and a
half to the construction of
railways and canals for the protection of districts liable to scarcity,
and to the reduction of the
annual loans for public works. But times were not always
prosperous, and the finance minister
had to choose whether be would bang up the insurance scheme for
a year or impose fresh

THE ENLIGHTENMENTS OF PAGETT, M.P.
263

taxation. When a farmer hasn't got the little surplus he I]oped to
have for buying a new wagon
and draining a low-lying field corner, you don't accuse him of
m~versation, if he spends what he
has on the necessary work of the rest of his farm."

A clatter of hoofs was heard, and Orde looked up with vexation,
but his brow cleared as a
horseman halted under the porch.

"HelIn, Orde! just looked in to ask if you are coming to polo on
Tuesday:
we want you badly to help to crumple up the Krab Bokbar team."

Orde explained that he had to go out into the District, and while
the visitor complained that
though good men wouldn't play, duffers were always keen, and
that his side would probalny be
beaten, Pagett rose to look at his n~ount, a red, lathered Biloch
mare, with a curious lyre4ike
incurving of the ears. "Quite a little thoroughbred in all other
respects," said the M.P., and Orde
presented Mr. Reginald Burke, Manager of the Siad and Sialkote
Bank to his friend.

"Yes, she's as good as they make 'em, and she's all the female I
possess and spoiled in
consequence, aren't you, old girl?" said Burke, patting the mare's
glossy neck as she backed and
plunged.

"Mr. Pagett," said Orde, "has been asking me about the Congress.
What is your opinion?" Burke
turned to the M. P. with a frank smile.

"Well, if it's all the same to you, sir, I should say, Damn the
Congress, but then I'm no politician,
but only a business man."

"You find it a tiresome subject?"

"Yes, it's all that, and worse than
that, for this kind of agitation is anything but wholesome for the
country."

"How do you mean?"

"It would be a long job to explain, and Sara here won't stand, but
you know how sensitive ca~ital
is, and how timid investors are. All this sort of rot is likely to
frighten them, and we can't afford
to frighten them. The passengers aboard an Ocean steamer don't
feel reassured when the ship's
way is stopped, and they hear the workmen's hammers tinkering at
the engines down below. The
old Ark's going on all right as she is, and only wants quiet and
room to move. Them's my
sentiments, and those of some other people who have to do with
money and business."

"Then you are a thick-and-thin supporter of the Government as it
is."

"Why, no! The Indian Government is much too timid with its
money-like an old maiden aunt of
mine-always in a funk about her investments. They don't spend
half enough on railways for
instance, and they are slow in a general way, and ought to be made
to sit up in all that concerns
the encouragement of private enterprise, and coaxing out into use
the millions of capital that lie
dormant in the country."

The mare was dancing with impatience, and Burke was evidently
anxious to be off, so the men
wished him good-bye.

"Who is your genial friend who condemns both Congress and
Government in a breath?" asked
Pagett, with an amused smile.

"Just now he is Reggie Burke, keener on polo than on anything
else, but if you go to the Sind and
Sialkote Bank to-morrow you would find Mr. Reginald

264
WORKS OF RUDYARD KIPLING

Burke a very capable man of business, known and liked by an
immense constituency North and
South of this."

"Do you think he is right about the Government's want of
enterpnse?"

"I should hesitate to say. Better consult the merchants and
chambers of commerce in Cawnpore,
Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta. But though these bodies would
like, as Reggie puts it, to make
Government sit up, it is an elementary consideration in governing
a country like India, which
must be administered for the benefit of the people at large, that the
counsels of those who resort
to it for the sake of making money should be judiciously weighed
and not allowed to overpower
the rest. They are welcome guests here, as a matter of course, but it
has been found best to
restrain their influence. Thus the rights of plantation laborers,
factory operatives, and the like,
have been protected, and the capitalist, eager to get on, has not
always regarded Government
action with favor. It is quite conceivable that under an elective
system the commercial
communities of the great towns might find means to secure
majorities on labor questions and on
financial matters."

"They would act at least with intelligence and consideration."

"Intelligence, yes; but as to consideration, who at the present
moment most bitterly resents the
tender solicitude of Lancashire for the welfare and protection of
the Indian factory operative?
English and native capitalists running cotton mills and factories."

"But is the solicitude of Lancashire in this matter entirely
disinterested?"

"It is no b~~siness of mine to say. I
merely indicate an example of how a powerful commercial
interest might hamper a
Government intent in the first place on the larger interests of
humanity."

Orde broke off to listen a moment. "There's Dr. Lathrop talking to
my wife in the
drawing-room," said he.

"Surely not; that's a lady's voice, and if my ears don't deceive me,
an American."

"Exactly, Dr. Eva McCreery La.. throp, chief of the new Women's
Hos~ pital here, and a very
good fellow forbye. Good-morning, Doctor," he said, as a graceful
figure came out on the
veranda, "you seem to be in trouble. I hope Mrs. Orde was able to
help you."

"Your wife is real kind and good, ] always come to her when I'm in
a fix but I fear it's more than
comforting ~ want."

"You work too hard and wear yourself out," said Orde, kindly.
"Let me introduce my friend, Mr.
Pagett, just fresh from home, and anxious to learn his India. You
could tell him something of
that more important half of which a mere man knows so little."

"Perhaps I could if I'd any heart to do it, but I'm in trouble, I've lost
a case, a case that was doing
well, through nothing in the world but inattention on the part of a
nurse I had begun to trust. And
when I spoke only a small piece of my mind she collapsed in a
whining heap on the floor. It is
hopeless."

The men were silent, for the blue eyes of the lady doctor were dim.
Recovering herself she
looked up with a smile, half sad, half humorous, "And I


THE ENLIGHTENMENTS OF PAGETT, M.P.
265

am in a whining heap, too; but what phase of Indian life are you
particularly interested in, sir?"

"Mr. Pagett intends to study the p0litical aspect of things and the
possibility of bestowing
electoral institutions on the people."

"Wouldn't it be as much to the purpose to bestow point-lace collars
on them? They need many
things more urgently than votes. Why it's like giving a bread-pill
for a broken leg."

"Er-I don't quite follow," said Pagett, uneasily.

"Well, what's the matter with this country is not in the least
political, but an all round
entanglement of physical, social, and moral evils and corruptions,
all more or less due to the
unnatural treatment of women. You can't gather figs from thistles,
and so long as the system of
infant marriage, the prohibition of the remarriage of widows, the
lifelong imprisonment of wives
and mothers in a worse than penal confinement, and the
withholding from them of any kind of
education or treatment as rational beings continues, the country
can't advance a step. Half of it
is morally dead, and worse than dead, and that's just the half from
which we have a right to look
for the best impulses. It's right here where the trouble is, and
not in any political
con~iderations whatsoever."

"But do they marry so early?" said Pagett, vaguely.

"The average age is seven, but thousands are married still earlier.
One result is that girls of
twelve and thirteen have to bear the burden of wifehood and
motherhood, and, as might be
expected, the rate of mortality both for
mothers and children is terrible. Pauperism, domestic
unhappiness, and a low state of health are
only a few of the consequences of this. Then, when, as frequently
happens, the boy-husband
dies prematurely, his widow is condemned to worse than death.
She may not re-marry, must live
a secluded and despised life, a life so unnatural that she sometimes
prefers suicide; more often
she goes astray. You don't know in England what such words as
'infant-marriage, baby-wife,
girl-mother, and virgin-widow' mean; but they mean unspeakable
horrors here."

"Well, but the advanced political party here will surely make it
their business to advocate social
reforms as well as political ones," said Pagett.

"Very surely they will do no such thing," said the lady doctor,
emphatically. "I u~ish I could
make you understand. Why, even of the funds devoted to the
Marchioness of Dufferin's
organization for medical aid to the women of India, it was said in
print and in speech, that they
would be better spent on more college scholarships for men. And
in all the advanced parties'
talk-God forg~ve them-and in all their programmes, they carefully
avoid all such subjects. They
will talk about the protection of the cow, for that's an ancient
superstition-they can all
understand that; but the protection of the women is a new and
dangerous idea." She turned to
Pagett impulsively:

"You are a member of the English Parliament. Can you do
nothing? The foundations of their life
are rotten-utterly and bestially rotten. I could tell your wife things
that I couldn't tell you. I
know the bf~the inner life

266
WORKS OF RUDYARD KIPLING

that belongs to the native, and I know nothing else; and believe me
you might as well try to grow
golden-rod in a mushroom-pit as to make anything of a people that
are born and reared as
thes~these things 're. The 'men talk of their rights and privileges. I
have seen the women that
bear these very men, and again-may God forgive the men!"

Pagett's eyes opened with a large wonder. Dr. Lathrop rose
tempestuously.

"I must be off to lecture," said she, "and I'm sorry that I can't show
you my hospitals; but you had
better believe, sir, that it's more necessary for India than all the
elections in creation."

"That's a woman with a mission, and no mistake," said Pagett, after
a pause.

"Yes; she believes in her work, and so do I," said Orde. "I've a
notion that in the end it will be
found that the most helpful work done for India in this generation
was wrought by Lady Dufferin
in drawing attention-what work that was, by the way, even with
her husband's great name to
back it
to the needs of women here. In effect, native habits and beliefs are
an organized conspiracy
against the laws of health and happy hf~but there is some dawning
of hope now."

"How d' you account for the general ~differencc, then?"

"I suppose it's due in part to their fatalism and their utter
indifference to all human suffering.
How much do you imagine the great province of the Pun-jab with
over twenty million people
and half a score rich towns has contributed to the mainten~nce of
civil dispen
saries last year? About seven thousand rupees."

"That's seven hundred pounds," said Pagett, quickly.

"I wish it was," replied Orde; "but anyway, it's an absurdly
inadequate sum, and shows one of the
blank sides of Oriental character."

Pagett was silent for a long time. The question of direct and
personal pain did not lie within his
researches. He pre ferred to discuss the weightier matters of the
law, and contented himself with
murmuring: "They'll do better later on." Then, with a rush,
returning to his first thought:

"But, my dear Orde, if it's merely a class movement of a local and
temporary character, how d'
you account for Bradlaugh, who is at least a man of sense taking it
up?"

"I know nothing of the champion of the New Brahmins but what I
see in the papers. I suppose
there is something tempting in being hailed by a large assemblage
as the representative of the
aspirations of two hundred and fifty millions of people. Such a
man looks 'through all the
roaring and the wreaths,' and does not reflect that it is a false
perspective, which, as a matter of
fact, hides the real complex and manifold India from his gaze. He
can scarcely be expected to
distinguish between the ambitions of a new oligarchy and the real
wants of the people of whom
he knows nothing. But it's strange that a professed Radical should
come to be the chosen
advocate of a movement which has for its aim the revival of an
ancient tyranny. Shows how even
Radicalism can fall into academic grooves and miss the
essential truths of
THE ENLIGHTENMENTS OF PAGETT, M.P

267
its own creed. Believe me, Pagett, to deal with India you want
first-hand knowledge and
experience. I wish he would come and live here for a couple of
years or so."

"Is not this rather an ad ho~'inem style of argument?"

"Can't help it in a case like this. Indeed, I am not sure you ought
not to go further and weigh the
whole character and quality and upbringing of the man. You must
admit that the monumental
complacency with which he trotted out his ingenious little
Constitution for India showed a
strange want of imagination and the sense of humor."

"No, I don't quite admit it," said Pagett.

"Well, you know him and I don't, but that's how it strikes a
stranger." He turned on his heel and
paced the veranda thoughtfully. "And, after all, the burden of the
actual, daily unromantic toil
falls on the shoulders of the men out here, and not on his own. He
enjoys all the privileges of
recommendation without responsibility, and we-well, perhaps,
when you've seen a little more of
India you'll understand. To begin with, our death rate's five times
higher than yours-I speak now
for the
brutal bureaucrat-and we work on the refuse of worked-out cities
and exhausted civilizations,
among the bones of the dead."

Pagett laughed. "That's an epigrammatic way of putting it, Orde."

"Is it? Let's see," said the Deputy Commissioner of Amara,
striding into the sunshine toward a
half-naked gardener potting roses. He took the man's hoe, and went
to a rain-scarped bank at the
bottom of the garden.

"Come here, Pagett," he said, and cut at the sun-baked soil. After
three strokes there rolled from
under the blade of the hoe the half of a clanking skeleton that
settled at Pagett's feet in an
unseemly jumble of bones. The M.P. drew back.

"Our houses are built on cemeteries," said Orde. "There are scores
of thousands of graves within
ten miles."

Pagett was contemplating the skull with the awed fascination of a
man who has but little to do
with the dead. "India's a very curious place," said he, after a pause.

"Ah? You'll know all about it in three months. Come in to lunch,"
said Orde.

VOLUME V PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS

LISPETH.

Look, you have cast out Love! What Gods are these
You bid me please?
The Three in One, the One in Three? Not so!
To my own Gods I go.

It may be they shall give me greater ease
Than your cold Christ and tangled Trinities.

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