MR. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)said he desired to move the adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance—namely, "the Resolution of the Government of India with reference to the partition of Bengal, published in the Parliamentary Papers delivered to Members this morning, and the serious situation created in Bengal by this decision." He did not, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, intend yesterday to ask the leave of the House to make this Motion, but circumstances which came to his knowledge on the previous evening and information which he had received rendered it necessary, in his judgment, to take this course. He recognised that it was, under the circumstances, inconvenient, but as it was the only way in which attention could be drawn to this important question he was constrained to take this action. He said that the history of this question, which was of Imperial importance, affecting the interests of a population of 75,000,000, could be regarded from three points of view, viz., those of the Government of India, the home Government, and the people of Bengal, respectively.
Dealing with the question from the first-named point of view, a conference was held in 1891 to consider the question of the readjustment of boundaries with special relation to the protection of the North-West Frontier, but the propositions made were not carried further at the time. In 1896 the Chief Commissioner of Assam prepared a scheme, which in the following year was submitted to Mr., now Sir Henry, Cotton, who drew up a, Memorandum to the effect that the recommendation; were inadvisable and impracticable. The next step was the letter of Mr. Risley, Secretary to the Government of India, in December, 1903, which might be said to contain the main grounds upon which the case of the Government of India was founded. By the publication of that letter public attention in Bengal was called to the 879 matter, a large number of meetings of protest were held, and the Viceroy visited a number of the districts involved, after which visit certain alterations were made in the scheme. The impression prevailed, however, that the reconstruction would not be proceeded with.
Next, dealing with the matter from the point of view of the home Government, the Secretary of State, on June 5th, stated that the Government had received proposals from the Government of India and would shortly communicate their views to the Indian Government. It was rather strange that in the debate on the Indian Budget the right hon. Gentleman should have made no reference whatever to this admittedly important question. The Papers just presented were extremely meagre, containing only Mr. Risley's letter and the Resolution of the Government of July, 1905. He would like to ask what had taken place officially before those periods, and also why the Secretary of State's despatch to the Government of India was not included in the Papers. The whole correspondence ought to have appeared, and the House had a right to complain that they had not received all the information which the importance of the subject rendered necessary.
Finally, dealing with the matter from the point of view of the people of Bengal, the publication of Mr. Risley's letter caused wide-spread consternation, but the prevailing feeling was that the Government of India were not in earnest in the proposals. However, in November, 1904, the Pioneer published a paragraph stating that the question was not dropped. The Indian National Congress, meeting at Bombay, unanimously passed resolutions protesting against the scheme. A similar course was adopted by a great meeting in Calcutta in January, 1905. Other meetings had been held all over the Province, and memorials had been sent to the Secretary of State, one signed by no less than 60,000 inhabitants of Bengal, appealing to the Government to suspend the operation of the Order, at any rate for the present. The appeals, however, were too late, the Secretary of State having given his assent to the proposals. But the protests continued to be made, and so recently as Monday last there was 880 held at Calcutta a demonstration described by the Statesman as the most remarkable which had taken place in India within recent memory. Both the native and the Anglo-Indian Press were unanimous in condemnation of the proposals, and members of the Legislative Council had spoken in a similar sense. The agitation against the scheme was not confined to the Indian population, but was shared in also by a large section of the European community. The reality and strength of the feeling against the proposal was generally acknowledged, and there was no doubt as to the magnitude of the agitation.
Without at all going into detail, he might say that the scheme involved the formation of a new province, consisting of East and North Bengal and Assam, with an area of 106,000 square miles, and a population of 31,000,000. It was to be ruled by a Lieutenant-Governor with a Legislative Council and a Board of Revenue. The question of cost immediately arose. The Secretary of State had said that the estimated cost was ten lakhs of rupees for buildings, and another ten lakhs per annum for increased charges for the maintenance of the Administration. Very little consideration would show that those amounts had been under-estimated, as £66,000 would not go very far in the provision of suitable buildings for public offices in the new capital.
The two main grounds on which the Government of India based their case for change were the intolerable burdens which were alleged to be imposed upon the Government of the province under present conditions, and the advantages which would accrue to Assam. He fully admitted that the administration was a heavy responsibility for one man to carry out, but he submitted that there was another way of solving the problem, which from an administrative point of view would meet all the difficulties of the situation without causing universal resentment throughout the province. The difficulty as to the increased charges for administration would have been effectively met by giving Bengal a Governor with an Executive Council responsible for the details of administration, in a word, by giving 881 Bengal similar machinery of administration to that existing in Madras and Bombay. As to the advantages to Assam, there was a strong body of opinion in Assam itself opposed to the change. The people of Assam naturally feared that when the scheme was carried out they would become a mere pawn in the larger province and that their affairs would not receive the same attention and supervision as was now given to them.
But apart from the administrative merits or demerits of the scheme the all-important point was that the proposals were deeply resented by practically the whole of the population concerned. They were convinced that a grave error was being made, and that the scheme had been carried through its various stages without consultation with the bodies representing their views. Day by day they were appealing for a suspension of the Order sanctioning the scheme until a further opportunity had been provided for examining the case. There were many factors in the hostility of the population. They resented the scheme because of their natural pride in Bengal as the premier province of India, and because of the historical associations connected with the province, social relations, and considerations of trade, commerce, and education. Further than that, they believed the scheme would tend to destroy the collective power of the Bengal people, and the power which had long been exercised by them in Indian national life, and which was regarded by the population of Bengal as one of the most valuable assets of their public life. Another reason for the aversion of the people was the belief that the change would overthrow the political ascendancy of Calcutta, which was not only the capital of Bengal, but the centre of wealth, intelligence, independence, and Indian life generally. Bearing in mind these considerations, it was not difficult to understand the dislike of the people of Bengal to being separated from the metropolis of India.
The scheme was founded mainly upon the work of officials of experience in the administration of large areas in India. No one was more ready than he to pay a tribute to the splendid services rendered by those who were called upon 882 to administer Indian government, but whilst full weight, should be given to the opinions expressed by these officials, it was equally necessary in a matter of this kind to give full weight also to the feelings of those outside the circle of official administration. It had to be remembered that this latest action of the Government of India was the culmination of many measures recently passed which, whatever the motive of those who passed them, had in fact been the means of alienating to some extent the affection and weakening the confidence of the people of India in our rule. We ought, therefore, to be particularly careful at this juncture how we moved in such a matter. He had often, insisted on the necessity of securing the confidence, trust, and affection of the people of India as an essential condition of the stability of our rule in India. In a short time the people would be preparing to welcome the Prince of Wales to that great dependency. It was peculiarly unfortunate that at such a time a shadow of this character should be cast across the life of the Indian people. He hoped the Secretary of State would be able to make such a statement as would allay the anxiety and relieve the tension which now existed upon this question in the minds of so many millions of His Majesty's subjects in the province of Bengal. He begged to move.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House do now adjourn."— (Mr. Herbert Roberts.)
SIR. MANCHERJEE BHOWNAG-GREE (Bethnal Green, N.E.)said the hon. Member opposite had obviously based his Motion not on the merits of the Resolution of the Government of India, but mainly upon the excitement that that Resolution had aroused in the province of Bengal. It was perfectly true, as the hon. Member had remarked, that the endeavour of Members of Parliament should be to do whatever lay in their power to beget confidence and affection in the people of India towards British rule, but he doubted whether Motions of this kind were calculated to promote that salutary object. The hon. Member had admitted that the object of the 883 Government of India in effecting the reconstitution of Bengal was to lighten the excessive burden now imposed upon its Administration by the increase of population, the expansion of commercial and industrial enterprise, and the growing complexity of all branches in the province. That being so, the only plea the hon. Member had urged in favour of his Motion was that the excitement caused by the Resolution was a justification for the intervention of the House of Commons in a matter which was exclusively within the province of the Government of India. It would be recognised that he spoke under circumstances of extreme difficulty because of that very agitation. But it was the duty of all Members not to do anything to encourage excitement of the kind created over this question unless that excitement were justified.
The main issue for them to decide was whether or not the step taken by the Government of India was justifiable. If it was, excitement or no excitement, the House was bound to give its decision in accordance with that conviction. In 1872 Sir George Campbell, a great friend of and sympathiser with the natives of India, asked for a similar change to that now proposed, and five years earlier Sir William Gray had complained of the heavy burden thrown on the shoulders of the Lieutenant-Governor by the administration of so vast a territory. The province of Bengal consisted of 189,000 square miles, with a population of 78,000,000, and would any hon. Member assert that it was within the competence of a single chief of the province to govern so large a tract of territory, to protect the interests, and to develop the resources, of so large a community and district? Assam consisted of 56,000 square miles, and had a population of only 6,000,000. The Government of India proposed to separate a portion of the large province of Bengal and incorporate it with Assam, and to give the new province so created an administration similar to that enjoyed by Bengal. The existing judicial arrangements were not to be disturbed, and the new province would continue under the judicial control of the High Court of Calcutta. There were many important districts of Bengal which 884 the chief of the province was at present unable to visit more than once during his tenure of office in consequence of the vast extent of the territory; the people were unable to come into close contact with their administrators, and interests which under a more compact system might be developed had been neglected. For instance, Chittagong, a large seaport in Bengal, had had to give way to the overwhelming rivalry of Calcutta, though it formed a natural outlet by sea for the province of Assam.
It was true that the people of the territories concerned were vehemently protesting against the scheme, but there had been cases of partition of this character in years gone by which had aroused equally strong feeling, but had eventually been completely successful, and those very people who were opposed to the partition would oppose any reversion now to the status quo ante. In proposing this scheme Lord Curzon knew perfectly well that he was playing an almost unpopular rôle, and that a great deal of opposition would be evoked, but in persevering with his scheme he was impelled by a great sense of duty. He (Sir Mancherjee) had carefully studied the memorial which those who disapproved of the reconstitution of the province had submitted to the House. The motives and patriotism of the people of Bengal who had signed the memorial against the scheme ought to be fully recognised, but he failed to see how all the evil effects enumerated were to be brought about by the mere administrative reorganisation of a province which had become too large to be managed as a single area. He did not believe the question of cost concerned would be any great obstacle of the proposal, and certainly the suggestion of the hon. Member who had moved the adjournment and advocated Bengal being made into a Governorship with an Executive Council would not be much of an improvement in that respect.
It was very well to talk of the feeling of the community; but what about the rights of the case? The hon. Member opposite indulged in a pleasing smile when he (the speaker) said that the opposition he offered to the Motion would be unpopular and 885 no doubt the hon. Member felt comfortable, in view of the notices he would get in the morning from the Indian Press. There was, however, a larger duty lying upon the Members of this House than merely seeking for praise or blame, and it was to do the right thing. This Motion calling for interference with a deliberate scheme of Lord Curzon's would tend to do mischief and. excite the people of India further over an administrative reform which perhaps they did not understand, and the future of which they certainly could not unravel. All over the British Empire they were talking of devolution. He believed his hon. friend who moved, this Motion was an advocate of devolution. The proposal of the Government of India was a scheme of devolution after all, because it was a proposal to place a large province under two separate forms of administration calculated to secure more efficiency, and he called that devolution. [An HON. MEMBER: That is a division.] That was devolution in its best sense, for at any rate it created two authorities to take care of interests which had outgrown their bounds, and which could no longer be properly safeguarded under one authority. Possibly if a division was taken on the Motion, hon. Members would follow the Party lead on this question, but whatever Government was in power, he hoped India would always be kept outside the pale of Party politics altogether. This House would best serve the interests of India by taking that course. The House should consider the serious effect that a Motion of this kind would have upon the people of India. He honestly and conscientiously believed—although he felt that what he was doing would be regarded as unpopular — that to carry this Motion would be injurious to the best interests of India, and he should go into the lobby against it with the greatest pleasure.
§ *THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. BRODRICK, Surrey,) Guildfordthought the speech just delivered would have a very strong effect on the judgment of the House. The hon. Member had taken a statesmanlike view of the difficulties they were now discussing. He would not like to treat the Motion as being dictated by any Party feeling, 886 because the hon. Member who moved it was undoubtedly within his rights in considering that a question so great in its importance to India, and so wide in its effect, was one which Parliament ought to consider, and as to which he had a right to ask for a satisfactory reply. The fact that Papers on that subject were only published two days ago was not due, in the slightest degree, to any wish to escape the control or criticism of Parliament. He was glad to have the opportunity of saying a few words in reply to the hon. Member who moved the adjournment, and he did not wish to minimise the importance of the subject. He did not think the Government of India could be accused of endeavouring either to minimise its importance, or to settle it with undue haste. The Viceroy and his colleagues had been engaged in considering the situation in Bengal for a considerable period, and had been so engaged before; in December, 1903, they put forward for discussion a scheme which was published, and the main points of which had been reproduced for the convenience of the House in the Papers placed before Members on the previous day.
What was the history of Bengal? In 1854 Lord Dalhousie described the burden which fell upon the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal as one that was more than mortal man could bear. At that time the population of Bengal was 40,000,000. It was now approximately 78,000,000. Not only was the province itself, enormous as it was, constantly increasing and growing in population, and getting beyond the control of a single individual, but Calcutta, which in 1872 had 633,000 inhabitants, had now within the same boundaries no less than 847,000 in-habitants, and including the suburbs the inhabitants numbered 1,100,000, which made it the second city in point of population in the British Empire. They must add to this enormous increase in the population the great progress in official attention to the minutest details of administration, the improved communication between the different parts of the province, the development of industries, the spread of education, the great growth of municipalities, the new charges of sanitation and 887 police. He would undertake to say that, in the fifty years which had passed since Lord Dalhousie had given his opinion of the demand which the work that had to be done made upon the time, the energy, and the ability of the Lieutenant-Governor, the burden had become tea times more arduous than before. For one thing it had been found that it was physically impossible for the Lieutenant-Governor to visit the greater part of the province which he controlled even once during his five years of office. Accordingly, the present Viceroy of India had come to the conclusion that so great an aggregation of humanity could not be properly administered by one individual.
After prolonged consideration the Viceroy produced in December, 1903, a scheme for the reconstitution of the province. It proposed to reduce the population of Bengal from 78,500,000 to 60,600,000. That scheme evoked a great deal of criticism between December, 1903, and February, 1905, when the amended scheme which was now to be acted upon was placed before the India Office by the Viceroy. His Excellency visited the places chiefly involved in the reconstitution. The objections which had been raised and the opinions collected from various authorities with regard to the first scheme had had a marked effect upon that scheme, but an effect, which the House would desire, of rendering it more consistent, not only with public opinion, but with progress in the direction which the Viceroy himself desired to go. The first scheme left Bengal with a population of 60,500,000. The new scheme further reduced that limit to 54,000,000. Of these the Mahomedans were 9,000,000 and the Hindus 42,000,000. It handed over to Assam a population which would bring up the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam to 31,000,000 of whom 18,000,000 would be Mahomedans and 12,000,000 Hindus. The new province would be in all respects on a par with the old province in regard to status.
The Viceroy's proposal was to give the new province a Legislative Council with a Lieutenant-Governor, to give it Revenue Board of its own, to give it the same facilities for education and, practically, to found, with an adequate com- 888 mercial outlet in the port of Chittagong a province which need be second to none in India except that of old Bengal. He noticed that in all the criticism of the scheme the fact that there was an overwhelming case for a change was admitted on all sides. The question was—Had the Viceroy chosen the best means of making it? There was no doubt that the disruption of social and linguistic ties by the division was a considerable one, but those who looked at it coolly here had reason to doubt whether the representations that this disruption of ties involved also an effect on the intellectual and material progress of the population to be transferred could be sustained. The Viceroy and his colleagues had fully considered the objections that might be urged, and their decision had been made not without knowledge of the opposition that would be roused. Their conclusions had been the result of anxious thought and deliberation, and they held that the remedy they had proposed was the only feasible remedy.
The hon. Member thought that, by establishing a Governor like the Governor of Madras and of Bombay, and by giving him a Council, they might at the same time have relieved the Lieutenant-Governor and met the sentiment of the people of Bengal. The view of the Viceroy and his colleagues was that the establishment of a Governor and Council would have failed in its object, and he thought it would be difficult to argue that, because Madras, with 42,000,000 of inhabitants, was well administered by a Governor and Council, therefore, by merely instituting a Governor and Council, they could make their organisation sufficient for a province with 78,000,000 inhabitants, who were constantly increasing. It was difficult to find an alternative to the scheme of the Government of India, a scheme in which substantial improvements and modifications had been made, and which had been placed on a firm basis. He commended the scheme to the acceptance of the House on the ground that it was necessary to take action, and that, after prolonged consideration, the Government of India had taken the line of least 889 resistance with a view to greater efficiency. The conviction of those responsible for the scheme in India was that the population to be transferred would find that their sentiments had been fully considered, that their interests would not suffer, and that their prospects of development would be increased when they had greater opportunities of personal overseeing by the Government which was to control them. He thought they must be content with the general statement which had been put before them, a statement which showed that every detail of this question had been carefully considered by those on the spot, which gave them an assurance that the action taken was one for which the time was ripe, and which, it might be, would result in the increased prosperity of the great population without in any way impairing its homogeneity or its sentiment?
§ CAPTAIN NORTON (Newington, W.)said the real point was whether it was advisable that this Order should be suspended until the scheme propounded by the Government of India had been more fully considered. Not only had the people of India protested against this scheme, but also the whole of the Anglo-Indian Press. The Secretary of State had said that there was no alternative scheme, but everything went to show that in Assam Chittagong was the natural outlet, and the first portion of this very Paper was full of schemes which various officers had placed before the home Government. The arguments in favour of previous schemes were carefully balanced, and they showed how Bengal could be relieved of 11,000,000 people, and how the province of Assam could be dealt with. He wished to know whether the rulers of the States affected had been consulted. It had been said that the status of these chiefs would be raised by being placed under a political agent. He should like to know whether those Indian chiefs appreciated being placed under a political agent, because instead of raising the status of the chiefs they would look upon this change as derogatory.
SIR MANCHERJEE BHOWNAG-GREEThere is no native State to 890 which is not attached some British resident or political official.
§ CAPTAIN NORTONsaid it was hardly necessary for the hon. Member to tell him that. He wished to know would these chiefs relish being put under a political agent?
*SIR MANCHERJEE BHOWNAG-GREEAll of them now have agents, and under the new scheme they will have a higher official to deal with.
§ CAPTAIN NORTONsaid his hon friend who moved this Motion had no objection to the details of the scheme which could be carried out without any interference with the entity of Bengal as a whole. The matter of sentiment in India counted for much. All they were asking for was that this final scheme should not become law without further consideration by the people of India as well as by the Members of that House.
§ *SIR HENRY FOWLER (Wolverhampton, E.)thought they were indebted to his hon. friend the Member for Denbigh for initiating this discussion, and he was quite within his rights in calling the attention, of the House to a question, which had excited a considerable amount of attention, and no doubt some public feeling. They knew that whenever a proposal was made in this country to alter a boundary or transfer an area from one county to another there was a great deal of feeling excited immediately; and even graver matters sometimes sank into insignificance when brought into contact with a question relating to a small provincial municipality or county district. Therefore, he did not think they should be surprised that the people of Bengal had some amount of sentimental feeling on this question. That feeling deserved to be considered and respected. He was in harmony with the attitude which the Secretary of State for India adopted on this question. There was one point perfectly clear, and that was that the present system could not remain. There must be a change. He did not dispute that the Government of India had given 891 protracted attention to this matter, and that the Viceroy, especially, had endeavoured to ascertain what was the local feeling, but he regretted that the information which had been laid before the House was limited. Beyond the right hon. Gentleman's speech and the very able speech of the hon. Member for Bethnal Green, they did not know what were the arguments used on both sides of this question, nor did they know what were the views of the India Office. He had no doubt the right hon. Gentleman had sent a despatch, perhaps more than one despatch, to the Indian Government, and he had no doubt that the Indian Government had replied giving their reasons for the course taken. It would be of much advantage to have the Papers laid before the House before asking an expression of opinion.
He should decline to vote one way or the other, because he was not convinced in his own mind that the Indian Government had or had not arrived at a correct conclusion. He did not doubt that the question had been fully discussed by the Indian Government at Calcutta, and by the Secretary of State in Council here. He had always maintained ever since he had had to do with Indian affairs that they must cherish the supremacy of Parliament in all matters, and he thought if they were to secure its support and confidence Parliament should be put in possession of the reasons for any great step taken. He would ask his hon. friend not to press this matter to a division because he thought it would produce a false impression in India and in England as to the views of the House. The House was not in possession of the facts and the reasons on one side or the other. He thought if the right hon. Gentleman would lay further Papers before the House which they would have an opportunity of considering in the recess, his hon. friend would take a wiser course by withdrawing the Motion than by having a division which would necessarily, in the atmosphere in which they now lived, have a Party character 892 attached to it, and of all things which he did plead against, it was the importing into questions of Indian government any Party controversy. He did not know anything that would compensate, for such a calamity as that would be. They had not sufficient information at the present time on this matter, and if the Secretary of State would give them a further Blue-book showing the pros and cons, he had little doubt that the ultimate judgment of Parliament would be in harmony with the position taken up by the Government of India.
§ MR. BRODRICKsaid he recognised the strength of the plea of the right hon. Gentleman that further information should be given. He would undertake to at once communicate with the Government of India, and to lay before Parliament as soon as he could whatever Papers it was in his power to lay in order to elucidate the whole question. He was only anxious to give the fullest information.
MR. HERBERT ROBERTSsaid that, in view the undertaking which the right hon. Gentleman had given to lay further Papers before Parliament as soon as possible, he would ask leave to withdraw the Motion.
§ Motion, by leave, withdrawn.