Europeans on the warpath

THE letter which the European Association of Calcutta had addressed to the Secretary of State for India on the subject of Indian Reforms deserves notice only as showing how hard fallacies and prejudices die which have their roots in fancied self-interest. There is not a single statement in this letter, not a single argument the absurdity of which has not been repeatedly demonstrated by speakers and writers. And yet these statements and arguments are here clothed in the garb of truisms and put forward in a document addressed to the highest official authority connected with the government of India. To make such statements and arguments the subject of a serious examination is not only to waste time and labour but to dignify them with a notice which they do not deserve. But when an obliging news agency gives to such a letter all the publicity in its power, it is not possible to wholly ignore it. The letter starts with a proposition which has all the appearance of a universally accepted truth, but which in reality embodies one of the most obvious of all fallacies in politics. The association, we are told, is emphatically of the opinion that there is not now and never has been any genuine appeal from the ‘peoples’ of India for self-government. Not even a moment’s reflection is needed to show that this short sentence of three lines contains as many gross errors, whether of fact or of thought. India has no ‘peoples’ but only one set of people. The question whether there has been an appeal from these people for self-government is not one of opinion but of fact, and this question can be answered only in one way by any man of ordinary honesty and intelligence.