etics, their almost naked bodies smeared all over with
fresh ashes and the trident of Shiva painted on their foreheads, return
with well-filled begging-bowls from some favourite shrine. Or an excited
crowd, all wearing the little white Gandhi cap, rend the air with shouts
of _Mahatma Gandhi-ki jai!_ in honour of some travelling apostle of
"Non-co-operation." And all over India the swarm of humbler travellers,
who lend their own note of varied colour even to the smallest way-side
stations, seems to increase every year, whether one crosses the vast
drab plains of Upper India or climbs the steep face of the Western Ghats
on to the sun-scorched plateau of the Deccan, or is unmercifully jolted
through the gentler and more verdant landscapes of Southern India.

One change, however, since pre-war days none can fail to mark.
Travelling is far less comfortable. Trains are fewer and far more
crowded. The rolling-stock is war-worn and dilapidated, for it could not
be renewed during the war, as, although a great deal of railway material
can be produced in Indian workshops, some absolutely essential parts
have always been imported from England--as many Indians believe for the
purpose of subordinating Indian railways to the industrial interests of
Great Britain. Even the permanent way has deteriorated. But the mere
discomfort inflicted upon travellers is a small matter, and it is
chiefly on grounds of racial feeling that Indians are beginning to cry
out against the many outward and visible forms of discrimination in
favour of European travellers. What the most moderate and thoughtful
Indians are concerned about is the futility of talking of the
development of Indian industries and the starting of new ones when
railroads and rolling-stock can no longer handle even the existing
traffic or move the essential raw materials. The problem brought to the
front by the grave crisis through which the Indian railway system is now
passing is neither new nor accidental. It is the outcome of antiquated
methods of railway administration and finance, of which it was possible
to disguise the defects so long as they were not subjected to any
searching strain. The war provided that strain, and the system showed,
it must be admitted, wonderful endurance under it so long as the war
lasted. But since the end of the war it has betrayed such grave symptoms
of imminent collapse that Government have been compelled to appoint an
independent Committee of Inquiry,