as amazing as it is
humiliating that less than 100,000 white men should be able to rule
315,000,000 Indians. They do so somewhat, undoubtedly, by force, but
more by securing our co-operation in a thousand ways and making us more
and more helpless and dependent on them, as time goes forward. Let us
not mistake reformed councils (legislatures), more law-courts, and even
governorships for real freedom or power. They are but subtler methods of
emasculation. The British cannot rule us by mere force. And so they
resort to all means, honourable and dishonourable, in order to retain
their hold on India. They want India's billions and they want India's
man-power for their imperialistic greed. If we refuse to supply them
with men and money, we achieve our goal: namely, _Swaraj_,[205]
equality, manliness."

The extreme hopes of the non-co-operation movement have not been
realized. The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms have been put in operation, and
the first elections under them were held at the beginning of 1921. But
the outlook is far from bright. The very light vote cast at the
elections revealed the effect of the non-co-operation movement, which
showed itself in countless other ways, from strikes in factories to
strikes of school-children. India to-day is in a turmoil of unrest. And
this unrest is not merely political; it is social as well. The vast
economic changes which have been going on in India for the past
half-century have profoundly disorganized Indian society. These changes
will be discussed in later chapters. The point to be here noted is that
the extremist leaders are capitalizing social discontent and are
unquestionably in touch with Bolshevik Russia. Meanwhile the older
factors of disturbance are by no means eliminated. The recent atrocious
massacre of dissident Sikh pilgrims by orthodox Sikh fanatics, and the
three-cornered riots between Hindus, Mohammedans, and native Christians
which broke out about the same time in southern India, reveal the hidden
fires of religious and racial fanaticism that smoulder beneath the
surface of Indian life.

The truth of the matter is that India is to-day a battle-ground between
the forces of evolutionary and revolutionary change. It is an anxious
and a troubled time. The old order is obviously passing, and the new
order is not yet fairly in sight. The hour is big with possibilities of
both good and evil, and no one can confidently predict the outcome.

FOOTNOTES:

[192] According