name, but in
fact. You may say that this is a wild apprehension, and that
the Government is not foolish enough or weak enough to
degenerate into a mere form. That may be the attitude
of an Englishman who is in India only as a bird of passage
(and all Englishmen are there as birds of passage, for only those
whose children belong to the country are permanently bound
up with it). For us who live here, and whose children are to
live here, the distant as well as the immediate future is of
essential importance. Now what is the tendency of Government?
Can any one deny that, taken as a whole, it is towards
Hindu predominance in the long run? English observers
must not forget that there is throughout India amongst Hindus
a strong tendency towards imitating the National movements
that have proved successful in European history. Now,
while _vis-a-vis_ the British the Hindu irreconcilables assume
the attitude of the Italian patriots towards the hated Austrian,
_vis-a-vis_ the Moslems there is a very different European
model for them to follow. Not only Tilak and his school in
Poona, but throughout the Punjab and Bengal the constant
talk of the Nationalists is that the Moslems must be driven
out of India as they were driven out of Spain.

This is no invention of ours. Nor is it quite so wild as it
appears at first sight. I have gone into the matter carefully
and I can certainly conceive circumstances--50 or 100 years
hence--that would make India intolerable for our upper middle
classes; and once you get rid of the intelligent and wealthy
Moslems the masses could be reduced to absolute subjection
in the hands of Hindu rulers. Far be it from me to say that
all Hindus are of this purpose or that the school of "liberal
Nationalism" to which Gokhale belongs has ceased to exist.
But the other school predominates, and as our very existence
is at stake we Moslems do not want to take any risks or to see
even the very first steps taken towards transforming the
British into a Hindu _raj_. Yet those steps are now being taken,
though not quite so fast as we at one time feared and Hindus
expected. That the sad and terrible fate which our people
had in Spain may still be ours in India is a proposition that
sounds extravagant at first, but I for my part (and most
thoughtful Moslems agree with me) consider it quite possible,
an