University of Northern Iowa

Lord Curzon's Services to India

Source: The North American Review, Vol. 176, No. 554 (Jan., 1903), pp. 68-79
Published by: University of Northern Iowa
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 LORDCURZON'S TO INDIA.
SERVICES
BY ANGLO-INDIAN.

The Viceroy of India is responsible for the welfare of nearly

295,000,000 of mankind. Of these, 231,000,000 live in the Brit
ish Provinces; the rest are subjects of the Feudatory States. The
British Provinces are under the immediate control of Governors,
Lieutenant-Governors and Chief Commissioners; but each Prov
ince is subordinate to the Government of India. To assist the
Viceroy in his gigantic task, there are five members of the Coun
cil of India. One presides over the departments known as the
Home Department and the Department of Eevenue and Agri
culture. Another holds the portfolio of Finance and Commerce.
The third controls the Military Department and transacts all
business connected with the Administration of the Army. The
fourth watches over the Public Works Department and is con
cerned withBailways, Irrigation, Eoads, Buildings and Tele
graphs; and the fifth, commonly known as the Legal Member,
devotes himself to Legislation and to the business of the various
Legislative Councils. All cases of importance are submitted by
the various departments to the Viceroy, and for good and for
evil he is held responsible. But for external politics, for rela
tions with frontier tribes, and for relations with the Native
States and Feudatories within India, involving the well-being of
over 63,000,000 of Indians, there is no Member of Council, and
the Viceroy himself directs and controls what is known as the
Foreign Department of the Government of India.
Now, there are two methods of discharging the duties of the
Viceroyalty of India. The first is the easier, the more prudent,
and perhaps the more common; and it consists in allowing each
department to do its own work, while the Viceroy confines him
self to his special business of Foreign Minister. This prudenf

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 LORD CURZOWS SERVICES TO INDIA. 69
method affects circles beyond the headquarters of the Govern
ment of India; and the distant Governors of Bombay and Madras,
the Lieutenant-Governor of Burma, and the three satraps of
Bengal, of Agra and Oudh, and of the Punjab, applaud with a
sigh of relief the wise discretion of their nominal chief in this
safe and almost constitutional choice. But the 295,000,000
of mankind in India are not reasonable people. They, too, have
their traditions; and the chief of their traditions is a belief in a
personal ruler, and a deep-rooted hatred and contempt for im
personal government. Nothing is more striking and pathetic
than the attachment of the Indians to the memory of the great
Queen Mother, and their reverence and love for her Emperor son.
But they require in the Emperor's representative a living visible
man, coming down to them from the clouds of the Himalayas,
and emerging from his closely guarded palace in Calcutta, to be
seen, to be heard, and to be known?a man and not a system.
Thus it was in the great days of the Moguls; so it is to-day In
the Native States. There, to the people, the State is the Eaja;
and to-day in British India, after just four years of intense
activity and almost superhuman strain, Lord Curzon is the
Government, and the living representative of the King-Emperor.
It will be of interest to examine the steps by which Lord Cur
zon has won this wonderful and almost unique ascendancy over
the people of India. He came out to the great Dependency only
four years ago, a young man practically untrained in real ad
ministration. True, he brought with him a valuable knowledge
of the countries which lie on the long marches of the Indian
frontier; but, to quote only two instances, he knew nothing of
the problems of the land-revenue system of India, nor of the
complex questions of the Native States. The older bureaucrats
smiled when they heard of the appointment of a young Viceroy:
"he would be enfiladed with files in three months," and would
tread smoothly the primrose path of urbane officialdom. But
they were mistaken. By dint of extraordinary industry, by pain
ful study of the piles of papers which were flung at him, and by
mastering the facts of each case, this resolute Viceroy soon showed
the wise men of Simla that he could buffet bravely through the
choppy waves of the red-tape rapids. And then, as he paused, he
began to examine, and even to criticize. It is said that he had
the temerity to suggest that the departmental system was too

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70 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

departmental, and he likened the protagonists to men who played

tennis or ping-pong, playing the game and keeping up the rally,
but oblivious of the human interests which depended on a speedy
decision and delivery. These and other heresies did he utter, and
Simla frowned. And the frown grew deeper as reform followed
reform. There was reform in office routine which the experienced
official stoutly declared would lead to an increase in work.
Strange to say, experience was wrong, and to-day the clerks and
under-secretaries are grateful for the relief. Next, it struck this
busy, ubiquitous Viceroy that it was good that the District Officer,
or Prefet, should be allowed to stay in his District sufficiently
long to allow of a nodding acquaintance with the people over
whom he ruled. There were difficulties, but Lord Curzon over
came them. He had too few English PrSfets to go round, and
he meant to make the most of them. In two years a good Eng
lish officer begins to know his people, in his third year he is a
power.
In the summer, when the heat in the plains is too intense for
hard continuous work, the Viceroy and his Government seek the
cool air of Simla, perched high up in the Himalayas; and with
the annual growls of the men in the plains against the costly
exodus to the Hills, Lord Curzon somewhat reluctantly sought
his mountain home. He said something about Simla being his
workshop, and the hill pheasants, as the official habitues of the
Himalayan capital are called, smiled. But it was true, as those
knew who saw the lonely light in the Castle room where the
Viceroy sat working, while the pleasure-loving Capuans were
whirling home long after midnight from their revels.
There was famine in the land?one famine following another.
What must this restless Viceroy do but post off from pleasant
Simla to the heat of the plains and to the cholera-stricken famine
camps. As he reached the first camp down came the rain, and the
superstitious Indians drew their own conclusions.
Having seen and sympathized with the patient, long-suffering
famine folk, he must needs visit all the plague camps, and he
quickly formed the opinion that the well-meant efforts to stay
the pestilence were useless, and that the less we interfered with
the people the better.
It was all so novel and so undepartmental. Simla frowned and
shrugged shoulders, and said it would not last. But it has lasted;

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 LORD CURZON'lS SERVICES TO INDIA. 71
and now, at the beginning of his fifth and last lap, here is this
Viceroy running as pluckily and as freshly as when he started.
But while the older bureaucrats in the Hills were raising their
hands in deprecation, the men in the plains and the men at the
ports clearly recognized the genius, industry, and grit of this
unusual man.

It is known to those who have studied Indian affairs and

know the people of India that the year 1899 opened under the most
unpromising omens. There had been famine and plague, sinister
conflicts between Hindus and Mussulmans which the wise read
as a veiled revolution against Government; there had been costly
and detrimental wars on the Northwest frontier. Officials were
worn out, worked to death, and often despairing. The tragic as
sassinations in Poona set men brooding, and when in 1899 famine
again stalked through the land and plague made another spring,
a man of triple courage and energy was wanted and was found.
The omens were bad, and the bazars were talking bad talk, and to
the ordinary man it would have seemed folly to deplete the Brit
ish garrison in India. But the call came, and Natal was saved
by the prompt arrival of British troops from India. Lord Curzon
trusted the people, and they nobly deserved his great and simple
trust. But he only gave what he had earned. He earned their
trust when he won their sympathy. It is the little things that
count, even in big India. One of his peculiarities was his love
of going personally into positions presented by all sorts and con
ditions of people. A
dismissed servant of Government will al
ways appeal to the Viceroy for mercy. In ninety cases out of a
hundred, his dismissal is right; but the Viceroy has a kind of
genius for detecting the ten cases where mercy might be shown.
His zeal was troublesome to the overworked departments, and
there were many wise and loyal friends who urged him not to
overtax his powers and to let such small things be. But he would
not. And so it went through India that the great Lord Sahib
looked into all things, and that the old Mogul system was re
vived and the hall of public audience reopened.
It is very hard for those who have never seen the horrors of
famine and plague in India to realize what it means to the
people. These gentle, home-loving people, suddenly hurled from
easy, happy prosperity into sordid, starving want, work patiently
at their tasks in the famine camp. And in the plague camp there

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72 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

is the same despair at the loss of the home and the disruption of
the family. In spite of efforts and self-sacrifice, often ending
in death on the part of the English famine and plague officers,
there were suffering and misery, and these breed discontent.
Then the troops depart to South Africa; and, later, the garrison
is more seriously weakened by the despatch of an army to China.
Anxiety increases; and, just as the sky is brightening, there comes
"
the news to India that the good Queen is dead. Let Government
look to itself," say the prophets and the pundits; "it was love
and reverence for the Queen that kept us quiet in our misery."
Like a beaver, the quick Viceroy is repairing the dam before the
water has begun to ooze. He is occupying the minds of nearly
300,000,000 human beings with memories of that wise and loving
Queen Mother, and he has pointed their eyes to a Memorial which
will one day rise as witness of India's love. And no sooner have
the hundreds of thousands who mournfully paraded the great
plain of Calcutta to testify to their sorrow melted away, than
the Viceroy sits down to think how quickly and how thoroughly
he may show to India that the King Emperor is but a re-incarna
tion of the lost Queen Empress. The busy brain was at work,
and the far-seeing eye looks over a space of two years to a splendid
pageant at Delhi, when all India shall know and rejoice in the
pomp of the coming of the new King Emperor.
It would be wearisome to recount the reforms which Lord
Curzon, in his almost boyish energy, has taken in hand. His
twelve reforms were the subject of much speculation; for the
most part, they have passed into the region of realization, but if
one studies the Gazettes and published State Papers of India,
from January, 1899, to January, 1903, one might multiply the
twelve by ten, and even then the list of the Curzon reforms
would not be exhausted. Not the reforms of a faddist or a dreamy
student, but simple practical reforms such as a good man of
business in America or England would introduce, if his well
being depended on the business. This Viceroy sees the points of
the game and never loses sight of them. What the points are can
be learned by a very casual reading of Lord Curzon's speeches.
He lands in Bombay on a sunny December morning in 1898, and
is most kindly greeted by the citizens of that most beautiful city.
He comes at once to his point. He believes that:
of which you speak, to the person and the throne of the Queen
"loyalty,

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 LORD CURZON'S SERVICES TO INDIA. 73
to be as widespread as it is profound and sincere. In my eyes
Empress
it is, more than any other factor, the bond which holds together in har

monious union the diverse races and creeds of this country, and which
secures to them the blessings of internal peace and tranquillity; and,

stay in India, I shall spare no effort, so far as in me lies,

during my
to fortify, to diffuse, and to encourage that feeling."

But it was to be no lip-loyalty, but real loyalty, that he de

"
manded and secured. In the same speech he said that to hold
"
the scales even would be a good motto for a Viceroy.
" con
For with what a mosaic of nationalities and interests he is

fronted; with his own countrymen, few in number, and scattered far and
wide under a trying climate in a foreign land, and with the manifold
races and beliefs, so and yet so divergent, of the indigenous
composite
in its and ever-multiplying millions. To hold the
population, swarming
scales even under such conditions is a task that calls indeed for supple
fingers and for nerves of steel."

The British in India is, on the whole, a marvel of good

garrison
conduct and patience, when we consider the awful climate and
the dreariness of the soldier's life. Maddened by the heat of the
stifling night, the soldier raises his fist against the Indian who
should be pulling the punkah, or, ignorant of the language, and
"
still more ignorant of the customs and prejudices of the Moors,"
he does something which brings the people of the village buzzing
around him like hornets. Then Thomas Atkins lashes out, and
too often a life is taken. New rules were made, and strict orders
issued and enforced to prevent these lamentable collisions between
the soldiers and the Indians. It was a subject of sufficient im
portance to call for mention at the Budget Debate, and Lord
Curzon said:
"Our one desire is to draw closer the bonds of friendly feeling that
should unite the two races whom Providence has placed side by side
in this country; and I venture to assert that no higher motive could in

any body of men who are charged with the terribly responsible
spire
task of Indian administration."

Quite admirable, but we admire more the practical and pro

phylactic Proconsul who, talking at an Army Temperance Meet
ing, says:
"There is no in which I have taken greater interest, since I
subject
have been in India, than in that of the improved ventilation and light
of barracks. ... I look forward to the time, and am doing my best
ing
to hurry it on, when every barrack in India shall be lighted by elec

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74 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

tricity, and when the punkahs shall be pulled by the same motive power;
and I believe that if this scheme were to cost half a crore of rupees or
more, it would be money well laid out in the improved health and ?on
tentment of the men, and in the diminution of one of the most frequent
causes of collision between soldiers and natives."

Lord Curzon has indeed hurried it on, and in years to come

the English soldier will live to bless the Viceroy who gave him
cool nights and unbroken sleep. It would have been so much
easier to leave the racial question alone. But this strange strong
man, who had pledged himself to "hold the scales even," de
clared that so far as in him lay he would bring to justice the
white man who wantonly injured his Indian fellow-subject. He
holds that every Englishman, official or non-official, is his col
league in the East. The white man is scarce and precious, and
his example and conduct are the determining factors in the suc
cess and strength of the administration of India. The policy is
admirably stated in the following words, instinct with the spirit
of the Good Queen proclamation. Addressing the soldiers at a
crowded meeting of the x\rmy Temperance League, the Viceroy
said:

"What, ask, are we

I would all here for?every one of us, from the

Viceroy at of the official

the head hierarchy to the latest joined British
in barracks? We are not here to draw our pay, and do nothing,
private
and have a good time. We are not here merely to wave the British flag.
We are here because Providence has, before all the world, laid a solemn

duty upon our shoulders; and that duty is to hold this country by jus
tice, and righteousness, and good will, and to set an example to its peo

ple. You may say why should we set an example, and what example have
we to set? I dare
Well, say we have much to learn as well as to teach.
It would be
arrogant to pretend the contrary. I feel myself that never
a day of my life passes in India in which I do not absorb more than
I can possibly give out. But we have come here with a civilization, an

education, and a morality which we are vain enough, without dispar

agement to others, to think the best that have ever been seen; and we have
been placed, by the Power that ordains all, in the seats of the mighty,
with the fortunes and the future of this great continent in our hands.
There never was a responsibility.
such In the whole world there is no
such duty. is why
That it behooves every one of us, great or small, who

belongs to
the British race in this country, to set an example. The man
who sets a bad example is untrue to his own country. The man who sets
a good one is doing his duty by this. But how can the drunkard set an
example, and what is the example that he sets? And what sort of ex

ample, too, is set by the officer who winks at drunkenness instead of

treading it under foot? It is no answer to me to say that the native

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 LORD CURZON'S SERVICES TO INDIA. 75
sometimes gets intoxicated in his way, just as the British soldier does
in his. One man's sin is not another man's excuse. Where are our
boasted civilization and our ethics if we cannot see that what is
superior
in him is more in us? If we are to measure our
degrading degrading
own responsibility by that rule, what
of the millions whom webecomes
of ourright to rule and our mission? It is, therefore, officers and sol
diers, not on mere grounds of abstract virtue, nor for the sake of the

discipline and the reputation of the Army, nor even for your own indi
vidual good alone, that I have stood here this afternoon to plead the
cause of temperance in the ranks; but because the British name in India
is in your hands just as much as it is in mine, and because it rests with
you, before God and your fellowmen, to preserve it from sully or re

proach."

There is a sin which easily besets the great Proconsuls of India,

the alcohol of popularity. In that beautiful land of pageants,
of antique politeness, and dolce far niente customs, there is a
great temptation to be all things to all men, and to avoid plain
speaking. But if we are to judge from a study of the English
and Vernacular Press of India, Lord Curzon has lost nothing
by his plain direct utterances. The native organs grind out the
same old tunes, doleful tunes of excessive expenditure on the
army, of over-taxation, and of a fine continent being drained of
its life-blood by British vampires. Over the drone of the organ
grinders rises the clarion note:
"
There are two duties of Imperial in India. The
great statesmanship
first is to make all these millions of people if possible more
happier,
contented, more prosperous. The second is to keep them and their prop
erty safe. We are not going for the sake of the one duty to neglect the
other."

Again:
"I am not in the least disturbed by the argument that all this mil
itary expenditure is a waste, and that the money had much better be
spent on projects of economic I would the
development. gladly spend
whole of our revenues in the latter way, but I say frankly that I dare
not. The army is required to make India safe."

To make India safe?that is his great preoccupation. When

he first came out as Viceroy, the military an
party pictured
ambitious man who would make India, if not safe, at any rate
bigger. The ardent spirits on the frontiers, and the priests of the
forward policy, saw the millennium and burnished their weapons.
But there was bitter disappointment. No advance of the frontier

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76 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

posts, but if anything the reverse. The regular troops are with
drawn for a bigger and more effective duty, and wild tribesmen
are enrolled as Frontier Militia. Wild-cat schemes of fortifica
tions in cul-de-sacs are contemptuously countermanded, and
though money is forthcoming for military expenditure, every
T)enny is counted and efficiency is insisted on.
The subject of taxation would require a separate article for
its exposition. Suffice it to say that the revenues of India depend
chiefly on land taxation, and that the happiness and prosperity
of the country depend on that taxation being moderate and evenly
distributed. Land taxation is a special study, and few save the
specialists who have spent their lives in the villages dare mention
the subject. And they as a rule obscure it by technical phrases
which baffle the layman. It came somewhat as a surprise to
officials and to the public generally when the indomitable Viceroy
sat down to study the subject and then issued to the world a
classic on Land Revenue?" no mere departmental defence of our
methods and objects, but a serious and conscientious examination
of the subjects of assessments in relation to the various parts of
India."

In all his utteranceson the hundreds of subjects which must

be confronted in the five years, one recognizes the broad unmis
takable lines of policy which guide him in his difficult orbit. In
a notable speech at the Convocation of the Calcutta University
"
from which we have gleaned, there is the old note of holding the
scales even."
" is any desire on the
Do not for one moment that there part
imagine
of the of this country to keep native character and
English governors
native in the background. I assert after more than
ability emphatically,
three of Indian administration, that wherever it is
years' experience
it receives encouragement andprompt reward.
forthcoming, unhesitating
An Indian who not only possesses the requisite attainments, but who has
a sense of and who runs straight, must come to the
energy, strong duty,
front. He is indispensable to us in our administration. . . .When an

that he is of India, it is not of battlefields and

Englishman says proud
nor of exploits in the Council Chamber or at the desk that he is
sieges,
He sees the standards of intelligence, of
principally thinking. rising
moral conduct, of comfort and prosperity, among the native peoples,
and he rejoices in their advancement. when an Indian says
Similarly,
that he is proud of India, it would be absurd for him to banish from his
mind all that has been, and is being, done for the resuscitation of his
the alien race to whom have been committed its destinies.
country by

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 LORD CURZON'S SERVICES TO INDIA. 77
Both are tillers in the same field, and both are concerned in the har
vest. From their joint labors it is that this new and composite patriot
ism is springing into life. It is Asian, for its roots ar.e embedded in the
traditions and the aspirations of an Eastern people; and it is European,
because it is aglow with the illumination of the West. In it are summed

up all the best hopes for the future of this country, both for your race
and for mine. We are ordained to walk here in the same track together
for many a long day to come. You cannot do without us. We should
be impotent without you. Let the Englishman and the Indian accept
the consecration of a union that is so mysterious as to have in it some
thing of the divine, and let our common ideal be a united country and a

happim people."

The Indians are shrewd observers of character, and often sum

up in a nickname qualities and tendencies which we strive to
express at blundering length. The nickname is rarely known till
the great man has left India, but we have often heard the abjec
tive "Pucka" coupled with the name of Lord Curzon. The
Indians, who are the reverse of "Pucka" admire the man who
is thorough, and while gently acquiescing in inefficiency, respect
the ruler who insists on efficiency. They like him, too, for his
almost splendid display and personal expenditure, and it is
rumored in the bazars that the Viceroy, like the unfortunate
British subaltern, does not see much of his pay.
But, above all things, they like him for his attitude towards
the Native Chiefs. It is a striking fact, the feeling of British
India for Feudatory India. Publicists scout the idea of an Indian
nationality, and they are probably right; but there can be no doubt
that the people of India see in the Rajas and their Raj, in the
Chiefs and their Kingdoms, the old India which they believe
existed before the Iron Age came in. It is a remarkable sight to
see one of these Chiefs in his own country, the object of
loving
adoration and respect: still more remarkable to see the veneration
and applause with which they are received in British India. It all
comes back to the prime principle that Orientals believe in and
require personal rule. It is curious to notice the attitude of the
native press towards the Chiefs. If an English official is caught
tripping, if a native in British India stumbles, the native press
thunders its denunciations throughout the country. But the
native press is tender to the faults of a native state. It is too
sacred, it is national, a last survival of the Golden Age of India.
There is, perhaps, nothing in the whole British Empire more

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78 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

fascinating than the close study of the Feudatory States of India,

but too often their quaintness and romance have been allowed to
obscure their importance and responsibilities. Too often the
King's representative has treated them with pleasant blandish
ment ; and, as each successive Viceroy passes away amid pageants
such as no other country can give, and after hospitality which
would eclipse the traditions of the City of London, the thought
ful onlooker, might have said, as he looked at the courteous, kindly
Eaja bidding adieu to the guest?" Te morituri salutant."
For India is growing up, and much as she loves her Kaja,
education is whispering strange and dreadful truths about prog
ress and about duty; and as the express train shrieks through the
Native State on its way to the ports and the ships, men look out
of the window and utter the word'" anachronism." And if Native
States had been allowed to glide easily down the gradient, it is
certain that as an institution they were doomed.
There could be no doubt that the Viceroy in his attitude
towards Native States was their consistent and courteous cham
pion. This
the Eajas and the people of British India fully recog
nized. They saw that he was an admirer of the institution and
was thinking hard how to perpetuate it. Unhappily for the in
stitution certain Chiefs, happily few in number, have sought in
foreign travel and in Western distractions escape from the ennui
of the environment of the country whence they draw their income
and their dignity. Apart from duty there is a grave political
danger in this, and the Viceroy issued a letter couched in very
plain in
termswhich he deprecated too frequent absence of Chiefs
from their territories and their subjects. But the chief point of
his policy is to do away with the ennui of the Chief's life and to
point him to higher things. It is well expressed in a speech
which at Gwalior.
he made After explaining the position of the
Feudatory States guaranteed against external ills by the Suze
rain Power, he said:
"
But I also do not hesitate to say, wherever I go, that a return is

owing for these advantages, and that security cannot be repaid by license,
or the guarantee exercise of wrong.
of rights by the unchartered The
Chief has become, an integral factor in the Imperial
Native by our policy,
organization of India. He is concerned not less than the Viceroy or the
Lieutenant-Governor in the administration of the country. I claim him
as my colleague and He cannot remain vis a vis of the Empire
partner.
a loyal subject of Her Majesty the and vis a visof his
Queen-Empress,

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 LORD CURZON'B SERVICES TO INDIA. 79
own a frivolous or
irresponsible despot. He
justify must and not
people
abuse the authority committed to him; he must be the servant as well
as the master of his people. He must learn that his revenues are not
secured to him for his own selfish gratification, but for the good of his

subjects; that his internal administration is only exempt from correc

tion in proportion as it is honest; and that his gadi is not intended to be
a divan of indulgence, but the stern seat of duty. His figure should not

merely be known on the polo-ground, or on the race-course, or in the

European hotel. These may be his relaxations, and I do not say that
they are not legitimate relaxations; but his real work, his princely duty,
lies among his own people. By this standard shall I, at any rate, judge
him. By this test will he in the long run, as a political institution, per
ish or survive."

" "
That one word colleague was quite enough. No longer a
mere holiday show, but a ruler with enormous powers and re
sponsibilities, working along under Providence to the same end
"
as the great Lord Sahib."
The Imperial Cadet Corps was instituted, by which a career
in the army is opened to the sons of the Chiefs and Nobles of
India, and above all a searching enquiry was made into the special
Colleges of the Chiefs, and various reforms for improving the
education and discipline of these institutions are to be introduced.
All this would have been impossible had it been attempted in an
impersonal manner. But in his short four years Lord Curzon
has visited every Chief of India in his own home, and each one
of them has heard from the Viceroy's own lips what he is trying
to do for him and his descendants. They know he is their cham
pion, and they hail with delight the frequent utterance that they
"
and their sons should still remain Indians, true to their own be
liefs, their own traditions, and their own people."
And now we in the far West must bid adieu to the simple strong
"
man as he fronts the sun in the far East. He is a believer in
taking the public into the confidence of Government. The more
they know, the more we may rely upon their support." He has
reason for his reliance if we read aright the published papers of
the last four years of British rule in India.
Anglo-Indian.

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