File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎484r] (615/1080)

in the old world who do not suspect that millions of her proletariat have been educated—*
industrials, labourers and artizans.
The industrial development of India, artificially inhibited by the English for the last twenty
years and particularly during those of the war, has gone forward with gigantic strides. From
1913 to 1919 the imports into India fell from 8‘6 million tons to 5'2 millions, of which the
imports from England alone fell from two-thirds to three-fourths. For instance, the value of
imported metal goods was in 1913 9 millions pounds sterling; in 1919 it fell to 2'82 millions.
Copper and brassware in 1913 stood at 1 -33 millions and in 1919 at -11 million. Other import
ed manufactured goods in 1913 stood at 38 million pounds in value and in 1919 at 30 millions.
(Yarga ; Crisis in the warld s Capitalist Economy.) Taking into consideration that during the
war prices in England have risen by half, these differences will be still further accentuated. This
fall in import is explainable principally by the development of local industry. As a result of this,
we find a crystallization of the proletariat and a class fusion—circumstances 'which will become
manifest as social factors of considerable magnitude m India.
Moreover, the population of the country is sharply divided into two sections. On the one
side is the ambitious and enterprising bourgeoisie which includes an innumerable intelligentsia,
a native aristocracy, and the higher official class, and on the other side, tens of millions of pea
sants and artizans on estates, rice, and tea plantations, railway, post and telegraph, factory An East India Company trading post. ,
and mill hands.
A portion of the native bourgeoisie is waging a grandiose struggle with foreign sovereignty
for the right of sole and undivided exploitation of the labour of Indian workmen and peasants
and of the riches of the country. The watchword of this struggle for national freedom seems
at present to be militant.
In addition to the foregoing, the country is agitated by gigantic strikes and upheavals of
workmen and coolies A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory. while the professional movement is expanding. The labouring masses
more and more realise that their principal enemy is their own bourgeoisie and not the English.
Characteristic of this idea is the incidence of the universal strike of protest, “ the Hartal ” iff
one of the towns of the Bombay province where the whole population took part with the excep
tion of two rich merchants. They were unanimously boycotted.
The English workmen element takes part in industrial strikes and even often directs them.
And these strikes are often directed against the native bourgeoisie which starves the vast mass
of labourers.
The struggle of the native bourgeoisie for the national freedom, or autonomy, of India and
the inclination of the Indian proletariat to a levelling of class distinctions, though as yet feable,
are growing every day. These are the two principal phases of Indian life. From their bewil
dering complexity arise intricate social phenomena which make Indian socio-political activi
ties so particularly diverse.
Of such is, firstly, the movement to utilize the refusal to work with the English Govern-
men (the so-called non-co-joperation) which has involved the intelligentsia of India. It is
founded on the teaching of non-resistance and of passive resistance to foreigners in India. Its
prophet appears in Mahatma Gandhi.
Of such is the unsuccessful movement for the liberation of the Khilafat—unsuccessful
thanks to its suspicious and fantastic nature. This movement brings together the whole mass
of totally primitive and frequently politically subversive seekers after adventures.
Of such is the elemental, tragic struggle now being waged throughout the whole of the
Pacific Ocean, on the shores of its continents, and on its innumerable islands, by legions of
Indian half enslaved emigrants, for the right to live on terms of equality with the White race.
Of such is the tendency and inclination towards sovereign independence among the self
ruling states of the vast Dependency.
Of such, finally, is the movement in the Indian National Congress skilfully to unite the
heterogeneous elements of the populace commencing with the Moderates whom even English
papers, like the Indian Daily News, sing e out as unpopular among the people, thanks to their
willingness to co-operate with the English, and finishing with those who do not stop in their
programme even at the national liberation of their country. The Congress, in effect, is a debat
ing society of the intelligentsia which brings together, principally, lawyers, professors, authors,
publicists, and so on.
All these are insignificant in comparison with the 300 million peasants and proletarians
whose inclination to seek their freedom is doing more to shake the Empire to its foundations
than the demands of the native pubhcists, manufacturers, and liberals.
According to latest information the right portion of the League of the Khilafat and a
section of the Congress have already come together on the question of the policy of the new
Viceroy, Lord Reading.
The native bourgeoisie is already beginning to form a bloc with the English Government.
TIVEL.