UNDER THE 

CROWN] INDIA up to that time from the introduction of British rule . Despite effects on Indian finance . The total strength of the army was unparalleled importations of grain by sea and rail, despite the most strenuous exertions of the government, which incurred a total expenditure on this account of 11 millions sterling, the loss of life from actual starvation and its attendant train of diseases was lamentable . In the autumn of 1878 the affairs of Afghanistan again forced themselves into notice . Shere Ali, the amir, who had been hospitably entertained by Lord Mayo, was found to be favouring Russian intrigues . A British envoy was refused admittance to the country, while a Russian mission was received with honour . This led to a declaration of war . British armies advanced by three routes—the Khyber, the Kurram and the Bolan—and without much opposition occupied the inner entrances of the passes . Shere Ali fled to Afghan Turkestan, and there died . A treaty was entered into with his son, Yakub Khan, at Gandamak, by which the British frontier was advanced to the crests or farther sides of the passes and a British officer was admitted to reside at Kabul . Within a few months the British resident, Sir Louis Cavagnari, was treacherously attacked and massacred, together with his escort, and a second war became necessary . Yakub Khan abdicated, and was deported to India, while Kabul was occupied in force .

At this crisis of affairs a

general election in England resulted in a change of government . Lord Lytton resigned with the cord Conservative ministry, and the marquis of Ripon was Ripon. nominated as his successor in 1880 . Shortly after- wards a British brigade was defeated at Maiwand by the Herati army of Ayub Khan, a defeat promptly and completely retrieved by the brilliant march of General Sir Frederick Roberts from Kabul to Kandahar, and by the total rout of Ayub Khan's army on the 1st of September 1880 . Abdur Rahman Khan, the eldest male representative of the stock of Dost Mahommed, was then recognized as amir of Kabul . Lord Ripon was sent out to India by the Liberal ministry of 188o for the purpose of reversing Lord Lytton's policy in Afghanistan, and of introducing a more sympathetic system into the administration of India . The disaster at Maiwand, and the Russian advance east of the Caspian, prevented the proposed withdrawal from Quetta; but Kandahar was evacuated, Abdur Rahman was left in complete control of his country and was given an annual subsidy of twelve lakhs of rupees in 1883 . In the second purpose 'of his administration Lord Ripon's well-meant efforts only succeeded in setting Europeans and natives against each other . His term of office was chiefly notable for the agitation against the Ilbert Bill, which proposed to subject European offenders to trial by native magistrates . The measure aroused a storm of indignation amongst the European community which finally resulted in the bill being shorn of its most objection-able features . Lord Ripon's good intentions and personal sympathy were recognized by the natives, and on leaving Bombay he received the greatest ovation ever accorded to an Indian viceroy . After the arrival of Lord Dufferin as governor-general the incident known as the Panjdeh Scare brought Britain to the verge of war with Russia . During the preceding The decades Russia had gradually advanced her power a ideh sre. from the Caspian across the Turkoman steppes to the border of Afghanistan, and Russian intrigue was largely responsible for the second Afghan war .

In

February 1884 Russia annexed Merv . This action led to an arrangement in August of the same year for a joint Anglo-Russian commission to delimit the Afghan frontier . In March 1885, while the commission was at work, Lord Dufferin was entertaining the amir Abdur Rahman at a durbar at Rawalpindi . The durbar was interrupted by the news that a Russian general had attacked and routed the Afghan force holding the bridge across the river Kushk, and the incident might possibly have resulted in war between Britain and Russia but for the slight importance that Abdur Rahman attributed to what he termed a border scuffle . The incident, however, led to military measures being taken by the government of Lord Dufferin, which had far-reaching raised by 10,000 British and 2o,000 native troops, at an annual cost of about two millions sterling; and the frontier post of Quetta, in the neighbourhood of 'Kandahar, /ncmease ~nth was connected with the Indian railway system by Army. a line that involved very expensive tunnelling . The Panjdeh incident was likewise the cause of the establishment of Imperial Service troops in India . At the moment when war seemed imminent, the leading native princes made offers of pecuniary aid . These offers were ~mpeda1 declined, but it was intimated to them at a later date troo servips: ce that, if they would place a small military force in each state at the disposal of the British government, to be commanded by state officers, but drilled, disciplined and armed under the supervision of British officers and on British lines, the government would undertake to find the necessary supervising officer, arms and organization . The proposal was widely accepted, and the Imperial Service troops, as they are called, amount at present to some 20,000 cavalry, infantry and transport, whose efficiency is very highly thought of . They have rendered good service in the wars on the north-west frontier, and also in China and Somaliland . Later in the same year (1885) occurred the third Burmese war . For the causes of the dispute with King Thebaw, and a description of the military operations which ensued before the country was finally pacified, see BURMA .

Frgm 1885 onwards the

attention of the Indian government was increasingly devoted to the north-west frontier . Between the years 1885 and 1895 there were delimited at various times by joint commissions the Russo-Afghan frontier between the Oxus and Sarakhs on the Persian frontier, the Russo-Afghan frontier from Lake Victoria to the frontier of China and the Afghan-Indian frontier from the Kunar river to a point in the neighbour-hood of the Nawa Kotal . To the westward, after various disagreements and. two military expeditions, the territories comprising the Zhob, Barhan and Bori valleys, occupied by Pathan tribes, were in 1890 finally incorporated in the general system of the Trans-Indus protectorate . About the same time in the extreme north the post of British resident in Gilgit was re-established, and the supremacy of Kashmir over the adjoining petty chiefships of Hunza-Nagar was enforced (1891-1892) . In 1893 the frontiers of Afghanistan and British India were defined by a joint agreement between the two governments, known as the Durand agreement . There followed on the part of the British authorities, interference in Chitral, ending in an expedition in' 1895 and'''the ejection of the local chiefs in' favour of candidates amenable to British influence . A more formidable hostile combination, however, awaited the government, of India . By the agreement of 1893 with the amir most of the Waziri clan and also the Afridis had been left outside the limits of the amir's influence and transferred to the British zone . Soon after that date the establishment by the British military authorities of posts within the Waziri country led to apprehension on the part of the local tribesmen . In 1895 the occupation of points within the Swat territory for the safety of the road from India to Chitral similarly roused the suspicion of the Swatis . The Waziris and Swatis successively rose in arms, in June and July 1897, and their example was followed by the Mohmands . Finally, in August the powerful Afridi tribe joined the combination and closed,the Khyber Pass, which runs through their territory, and which was held by them, on conditions, in trust for the government of India .

This led to the military operations known as the

Tirah campaign, which proved very costly both in men and money . Meanwhile considerable difficulties had been experienced with the Indian currency, which was on a purely silver basis . Before 1873 the fluctuations in the value of silver as The compared with gold had been comparatively small, ~17en~ and the exchange value. of the rupee was rarely less than two shillings . But after 1873, in consequence of changes in the monetary systems of France and Germany, and the increased production of silver, this stability of exchange no longer continued, and the rupee sank steadily in value, till it was worth little more than half its face value . This great shrinkage in area magisterial inquiry in private (similar to the Scotch exchange caused considerable loss to the Indian government procedure) and a trial before three judges of the High Court in remitting to Europe, and entailed hardship upon Anglo-Indians without a jury. who received pensions or other payments in rupees, while on the other hand it supplied an artificial stimulus to the export trade by increasing the purchasing power of gold . This advantage, however, was outweighed by the uncertainty as to what the exchange value of the rupee might be at any particular date, which imported a gambling element into commerce . Accordingly in June 1893 an act was passed closing the Indian mints to the free coinage of silver . Six years later, in 1899, the change was completed by an act making gold legal tender at the rate of £1 for Rs.' 5, or at the rate of is . 4d. per rupee, and both the government and the individual now know exactly what their obligations will be . When Lord Curzon became viceroy in 1898, he reversed the policy on the north-west frontier which had given rise to the Tirah campaign, withdrew outlying garrisons in Lord tribal country, substituted for them tribal militia, Carson's „storms. and created the new North-West Frontier province, for the purpose of introducing consistency of policy and firmness of control upon that disturbed border . In addition, after making careful inquiry through various commissions, he reformed the systems of education and police, laid down a comprehensive scheme of irrigation, improved the leave rules and the excessive report-writing of the civil service, encouraged the native princes by the formation of the Imperial Cadet Corps and introduced many other reforms . His term of office was also notable for the coronation durbar at Delhi in January 1903, the expedition to Lhasa in 1904, which first unveiled that forbidden city to European gaze, and the partition of Bengal in 1905 .

In

December 1904 Lord Curzon entered upon a second term of office, which was unfortunately marred by a controversy with Lord Kitchener, the commander-in-chief, as to the position of the military member of council . Lord Curzon, finding himself at variance with the secretary of state, resigned before the end of the first year, and was succeeded by Lord Minto . The new viceroy, who might have expected a tranquil time after the energetic reforms of his predecessor, soon found himself Lord face to face with the most serious troubles, euphemistic- Minto. ally called the "unrest," that British rule has had The to encounter in India since the Mutiny . For many unrest. years the educated class among the natives had been claiming for themselves a larger share in the administration, and had organized a political party under the name of the National Congress, which held annual meetings at Christmas in one or ether of the large cities of the peninsula . This class also exercised a wide influence through the press, printed both in the vernacular languages and in English, especially among young students . There is no doubt too that the adoption of Western civilization by the Japanese and their victorious war with Russia set in motion a current through all the peoples of the East . The occasion though not the cause of trouble arose from the partition of Bengal, which was represented by Bengali agitators as an insult to their mother country . While the first riots occurred in the Punjab and Madras, it is only in Bengal and eastern Bengal that the unrest has been bitter and continuous . This is the centre of the swadeshi movement for the boycott of English goods, of the most seditious speeches and writings and of conspiracies for the assassination of officials . At first the government attempted to quell the disaffection by means of the ordinary law, with fair success outside Bengal; but there, owing to the secret ramifications of the conspiracy, it has been found necessary to adopt special measures . Recourse has been had to a regulation of the year 1818, by which persons may be imprisoned or " deported " without reason assigned; and three acts of the legislature have been passed for dealing more directly with the prevalent classes of crime: (I) an Explosives Act, containing provisions similar to those in force in England; (2) a Prevention of Seditious Meetings Act, which can only be applied specially by proclamation; and (3) a Criminal Law Amendment Act, of which the two chief provisions xiv I.1 While the law was thus sternly enforced, important acts of conciliation and measures of reform were carried out simultaneously . In 1907 two natives, a Hindu and a Mahommedan, were appointed to the secretary of state's Reforms. council; and in 1909 another native, a Hindu barrister, was for the first time appointed, as legal member, to the council of the viceroy .

Occasion was taken of the fiftieth anniversary of the

assumption by the crown of the government of India to address a message (on November 2, 1908) by the king-emperor to the princes and peoples, reviewing in stately language the later development, and containing these memorable words: ” From the first, the principle of representative institutions began to be gradually introduced, and the time has come when, in the judgment of my viceroy and governor-general and others of my counsellors, that principle may be prudently extended . Important classes among you, representing ideas that have been fostered and encouraged by British rule, claim equality of citizenship, and a greater share in legislation and government . The politic satisfaction of such a claim will strengthen, not impair, existing authority and power . Administration will be all the more efficient if the officers who conduct it have greater opportunities of regular contact with those whom it affects and with those who influence and reflect common opinion about it." The policy here adumbrated was (at least partly) carried into effect by parliament in the Indian Councils Act 1909, which reconstituted all the legislative councils by the addition of members directly elected, and conferred upon these councils wider powers of discussion . It further authorized the addition of two members to the executive councils at Madras and Bombay, and the creation of an executive council in Bengal and also (subject to conditions) in other provinces under a lieutenant-governor . Regulations for bringing the act into operation were issued by the governor-general in council, with the approval of the secretary of state, in November 1909 . They provided (inter alia) for a non-official majority in all of the provincial councils, but not in that of the governor-general; for an elaborate system of election of members by organized constituencies; for nomination where direct election is not appropriate; and for the separate representation of Mahommedans and other special interests . They also contain provisions authorizing the asking of supplementary questions, the moving and discussion of resolutions on any matter of public interest and the annual consideration of the contents of the budget . In brief, the legislative councils were not only enlarged, but transformed into debating bodies, with the power of criticizing the executive . The first elections took place during December 1909, with results that showed wide-spread interest and were generally accepted as satisfactory . The new council of the governor-general met in the following month .