"ملخص للأحداث الرئيسية. ١٩٠٨" [ظ‎‎٧‎٠] (١٥٦/١٤٥)

128
Cowardice of Eng'
lisbrnen.
fmriaW kin- ", and so forth. The many instances of hooting and jeering at
European^ which have been recorded may not improbably be traced to this
propaganda on the part of the native press.
6 A special attempt has been made to prove that the English are degener-
ate and cowardly, and that the Government is afraid of the people of India.
It is pointed out that the Imperial Service Troops of native chiefs have been
accepted for service on the frontier only because the Government fear that the
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are
The
Press.
Articles in the
Vernacular Press.
princes of India might revolt when the Government forces s
fiehtino* on the frontier, if their contingents were left at their own disposal.
Newspaper articles have harped on “ the cowardice of Englishmen which has
frequently been shown on the battlefields of India ”, and have made the most
of the panic of Europeans at Lahore and Delhi during the riots of 1907, un-
fortunately with, only too much foundation in fact.
Vernacular 7. Both vernacular newspapers and lecturers were very active in dissemi-
natin^ sedition until lately. Devolution, bomb-throwing and assassination were
openly advocated, some of the most virulent newspapers commanding an
enormous sale, The newspapers of Bengal, which included the notorious
Yuganiar and Sandhya, were the most violently disloyal, with those of Bombay
almost equally objectionable, though 1< ss crudely so. No province has been
free from the taint of seditious writing, but the press legislation of the year has
produced a remarkable improvement in tone, with few exceptions. The
Sttarajya of Allahabad, which seemed at one time desirous of putting on
the mantle of the defunct Yugantar, and the Aftab of Delhi, together with a
few other Punjab newspapers, were the most noticeable of these exceptions: but
the Aftab has ceased to exist, and the tone of the vernacular press as a whole
is now remarkably mild. Of the Anglo-vernacular papers^ Bande Mataram
far outdistanced all compe titors in virulence, and its suppression seems to have
had a most salutary effeet,
8. Most violent comments were made in the vernacular press throughout
India on the theme of murderous assaults and outrages committed by Europeans
on Indians, and the immunity of the former from punishment by the law, to
which several most unfortunate cases—notably the “Bawal Pindi rape ease”
and the “ Sterling caseat Lahore—have lent only too much justification. A
special feature has been the reproduction of seditious articles from other papers,
and the publication of seditious leaflets, notices and speeches in the vernacular
papers, often on the pretence of publishing the report of a trial for sedition.
Attempts to in- 9. A disquieting feature in the press campaign is the statement, which
fluence tie rising a pp ears he well substantiated, that seditious newspapers are nowhere more
popular than in the zenanas. The actively disloyal party early recognised that
it is among students and schoolboys that lies their principal chance of success
in popularising revolutionary ideas. The necessity for preserving at least the
semblance of discipline in schools and colleges, however, has thrown difficulties
in the agitators* way, and by approaching the women they hope to influence
the children, who will “ drink in the desire for freedom with their mothers’
milk”. There is, indeed, good reason to suppose that the leaders have deliber
ately decided to abandon the policy of an early rising, such as they were un
doubtedly working for in 1907, and to try by education ” to prepare the rising
generation for a united effort some years hence.
30. Prosecution also seems to have been successful in checking the flood
of seditious lectures and speeches which at one time were reported almost daily.
It has been noticed as a disquieting symptom that in many cases minor officials,
pensioners, reservists, etc., listened to seditious speeches witnout making the
slightest attempt to stop them : but the prosecution of several of the most pro
minent among the lecturers has apparently dissuaded others from making trial
of this method of earning a martyr’s crown.
Prosecution's for II. It is true that in the case of newspapers the real offenders generally
speaking. writl!lg an ^ managed to screen themselves behind mere men of straw, such as printers and
publishers : hut this class of secondary martyr requires to he well paid for his
trouble, and the money difficulty as regards subsidies to “ prosecution ”
editors, etc., has had its inevitable result. The confiscation of a press at which
generation.
Seditious lectures,
etc.