A Nation in Making/Chapter 33

​33

My work as Minister

We were installed in office on January 4, 1921, amid some show of pomp and circumstance. The Executive Councillors and the Ministers, headed by His Excellency, went in procession to the throne room, where we took the oath of office. This being over, we sat as a Cabinet, round a table, at the head of which was the Governor. We signed a book and left the throne room again in procession. We then dispersed to our offices, and our work began in right earnest; and it was work of no small difficulty and, for us, of no little anxiety. We were new to the work, to the office and its surroundings. The atmosphere was one we had never breathed before. It was strange and novel, though we found in it much to encourage us.

My Secretary was an Irishman with all the warm susceptibilities of his Celtic race. He showed every disposition to help, and sometimes to guide me, in the slippery, and to me, the untrodden, paths of official procedure. He tried, if I may so express myself, to get into my skin. He had known me by repute, as most Englishmen in India know me, but his official training and familiarity with detail had warned him that superficial knowledge did not always mean a real grasp of the inwardness of men or things. The flaming revolutionary would often, on closer inspection, turn out to be a good-natured gentleman, quite open to the influences of reason and common sense. So Mr. O'Malley, as he once told me, and as I often saw him in the act, took to reading my published speeches amid the dreary debates which sent so many of us to sleep in the Council Chamber. Thus he came to know me more closely than I was aware of, and I came to know him through the loyal help I received from him, and we got on wonderfully well. It was therefore with real regret that I parted from him in October, 1921, when he went away on long leave.

But the whole department was inspired by the same spirit. Dr. Bentley was the head of the Sanitary Department, my right-hand man in matters of public health. He saw me immediately after my ​appointment, and assured me of his co-operation. I could always count upon it with absolute reliance. An enthusiast, combining knowledge with almost apostolic fervour, he had less of red-tapism in him than almost any British official I have seen. Sometimes he got into trouble from a lack of this quality, but that was his own affair. On the whole, I thought it was a distinct gain to the public service. I fear that between him and the Indian Medical Service there was not much love lost. The feeling was reciprocal, and the troubles caused thereby had sometimes to be set right by the tactfulness of superior authority. Under Dr. Bentley’s inspiration the whole department was instinct with a new spirit, and its work was carried on with vigour and enthusiasm. And yet every now and then resolutions were moved in the Legislative Council recommending the reduction of establishment, curtailment of propaganda work, and, on one occasion, the abolition of Dr. Bentley’s post. I had no difficulty in securing their withdrawal or defeat. All this showed the sense of irresponsibility of some of those who had chosen to come to the Council as the representatives of the people and the guardians of their interests.

With equal spontaneity did I receive the support of Mr. D. B. Williams, the Chief Engineer in charge of Sanitary Works. There was on his part willing co-operation and readiness to support my schemes wherever practicable. Of this I had a signal illustration in connexion with the scheme of riparian water-supply which his department took up at my instance. It was an idea that had been started several years ago, and long before the Reforms, but had been dropped for reasons to which it is unnecessary to refer. I lived in the riparian area and was personally cognizant of the boon to public health which a supply of pure water ensured; and, what was still more important, public opinion was beginning to feel the want of it and the need for shouldering the financial burden that it must entail. It was the fortunate development of an advancing public opinion, and I felt that in my position, with my power and responsibilities, I should take the fullest advantage of it. One of the first things that I did was to appoint a committee for considering schemes of water-supply for the riparian municipalities on the left bank of the Hugli. The Committee with Mr. Williams as their head recommended tube-wells for these municipalities; and, but for financial stringency, which hampered us in all directions, the system would by this time have been installed in some of our municipal areas.

​Coming now to the Medical Department, which is a transferred subject, I confess I had a more difficult task. My relations with the head of the department and the prominent members of the Indian Medical Service were friendly, and with some of them cordial. As for the personnel I had nothing to complain of and much to be thankful for. But it was my policy that was my difficulty, and it was a policy to which I had been wedded through life. I could not abandon or even modify it, without sacrificing my principles and proving false to the convictions of a lifetime. I wanted to Indianize the department, so far as I could, without of course impairing its efficiency, and without detriment to the cause of medical education and the proper administration of our hospitals. I believed this to be quite feasible; and I gratefully acknowledge the support I received from both Lord Ronaldshay and Lord Lytton. They were in full sympathy with it and helped me with their powerful support. It is only fair to add that the Surgeons-General with whom I was asso- ciated in the administration of the department all realized the soundness of my policy. They felt—so far as I could judge—that the time had come when a definite and distinct advance towards the Indianization of the Indian Medical Service and the association of independent medical practitioners in hospital work, should be made. Our differences arose in regard to details. It was the pace of the advance, the progressive stages towards the realization of the goal, that formed the subject-matter of discussion. There was no disposition on either side to magnify the differences. We co- operated where we could; we differed where we had to, and with the courtesy and candour of gentlemen, all inspired by one motive, the good of India, exalting it above the minor interests of class and service. My relations with the Medical Department may be judged from the following letter, which I received from the Surgeon- General of Bengal, Major-General Deare, on vacating my office as Minister:

It is worthy of notice that during the three years I was Minister there was no Surgeon-General with whom I had so many fights. I think you really get to the heart of an Englishman if you give him one or two hard knocks, and he pays you back in kind. You become good friends after such a tussle. My experience tells me that this is the royal road to his heart. It engenders mutual esteem and confidence.

However that may be, it was not all plain sailing with me in the administration of a great department, where I was endeavouring to instil the breath of a new spirit, fostered by my lifelong association with popular ideas. I remember that, on one occasion at least, there was a passing breeze between myself and an acting Surgeon-General. It was in connexion with the transfer of a Civil Surgeon. There was a difference of opinion between him and the Magistrate of the district, and I had to decide the point; I supported the Magistrate's point of view for administrative reasons, which seemed to me to be sufficient. The Surgeon-General was unyielding. We discussed the matter, but he was unwilling to give way. I then said to him, 'If you are unable to persuade yourself to see eye to eye with me, will you please take it as an order from me?' He readily assented with the discipline of the great Service to which he belonged. But this was only a passing incident, and left no unpleasant memories behind. Our relations continued to be as friendly as before.

What I tried to create was an atmosphere of trust and confidence. We were new to the office and the office staff. They were tried veterans in their work. I was a stranger to it. They had an advantage over me. I had none over them, except that I was in the position of their Chief, and had behind me a more or less well-known record of public work. The office was well disposed; their good will, however, had to be cemented. There was an air of confidence all around; but it had to be consolidated and deepened. I remembered a well-known passage in one of Herbert Spencer's books in which he says, 'If you want to win over people, you must seem to love them; and the best way to seem to love them is really ​to love them.' I tried to make every subordinate of mine in a responsible position who came in contact with me feel that I trusted him, and my confidence was well repaid.

I further fclt that I stood face to face with the traditions of a great office, with rules and methods of procedure built up by generations of experienced administrators, which I was bound to respect, and which could only slowly be modified. Our critics and even our friends expected that we should, on our assumption of office, do great things and inaugurate vast changes. They forgot that we had not a tabula rasa upon which we might inscribe anything we pleased, and that no one could assume charge of the duties of a great department of the State with his bundle of first principles, if he had any, and straightway give effect to them in the practical work of administration. That work, in its most difficult and controversial aspects, resolved itself into a series of compromises, where the application of principles has to be determined by the circumstances of each case. The result is not always satisfactory to the Minister or the Member in charge, and even less so to the public. Disappointment follows; criticism is inevitable, while the unfortunate author of progressive measures, which but imperfectly come up to his own ideals or expectations, is prevented by the vow of silence and the obligations of his office from revealing the secrets of his prisonhouse. In countries where Parliamentary institutions have long been established all this is understood, and where there are party organizations and party organs the encouraging approval of a section of the public is readily obtained; and the Minister has not to continue from week's end to week's end his wearisome journey through the chill and suffocating atmosphere of hostile criticism, unrelieved by any sort of approbation, except that of his own conscience.. That indeed is a cold comfort, but that is the only sort of comfort, the only form of solace, that we have had in the dreary journey, which for me is now at an end, and which I am not prepared to renew, except in circumstances very different from those that now prevail.

I have referred at some length to the atmosphere inside the Secretariat. Even under the new regime it is bound to be an important factor. The Minister formulates the policy of his department; but it is the permanent officials who have to carry it out and work out the details; and it is these details that in many cases impart shape and colour to the policy. An ideal policy without reference to details is no policy at all. But while there was all this ​goodwill, this spirit of co-operation in the Secretariat, the counter- part of it was more or less wanting outside the official circle. The Press of Bengal, with exceptions here and there, was saturated with the spirit of Non-Co-operation, and was Extremist in its views and utterances. The reception accorded to us was cold and even hostile. The Reforms were mere moonshine. They meant nothing. We were described as officials and bureaucrats, associated with a machinery that was designed to perpetuate a fraud and to whitewash a delu- sion. In vain did we protest that we were not 'officials', or point to the clear wording of the Government of India Act. In vain did our actions belie this view. Unlike officials, we continued to hold political offices and to address public meetings. I remained Presi- dent of the Indian Association and for some time Chairman of the North Barrackpore Municipality. Only the other day I condemned the decision of the British Cabinet in connexion with the Kenya question, and warned the Government of India of its unwisdom. But ours was a voice crying in the wilderness, and to the last we continued to be the 'brown bureaucrats' of the Extremist Press. Facts and arguments would not appeal to those who, having eyes and ears, would neither see nor hear.

It was in an atmosphere of this kind that we started work. Burke has told us that conciliation is the sovereign remedy for public distempers. I tried to please and conciliate, but cannot say that I was very successful. When a fixed policy for a particular end is pursued by a party, they are usually deaf to arguments and entrea- ties. But these are the only weapons in the armoury of the public man. I employed them and I made a new departure. I appealed to the Press to help me in my work for the promotion of public health. I invited a conference of the members of the Press at the Town Hall in July, 1921. In opening its proceedings I said:

newspapers. But the Extremist organs showed little or no signs of co-operation.

In the same spirit and with the same object in view, namely, the co-operation of public opinion, I had convened earlier in the year (in March, 1921), only two months after I had assumed office, a conference of leading representatives to discuss some of the more important provisions of a Bill to amend the Calcutta Municipal Act. An amendment of the Calcutta Municipal Act had long been overdue. The idea had been present to the mind of the Government ever since Lord Carmichael's time; a Bill was actually introduced into the Council in 1917, but was withdrawn. I decided to take the matter up and place the municipal system of Calcutta, and, if the opportunity occurred, that of the whole province, on a line with the newly inaugurated Reforms. In pursuance of this policy, after I had amended the Calcutta Municipal Act and had placed it on the statute book, I started framing a Bill to amend the Bengal municipal system, which was as old as the year 1884, and had been allowed to remain for forty years without any substantial amendment; and here again I followed the practice, which I had inaugurated, of convening a conference of some of the leading representatives of the mofussil municipalities, and I consulted them with regard to the important features of the pro- posed amendment. This is a procedure, I may add, that I uniformly followed during my tenure of office in connexion with all legislative projects.

Throughout I felt that in the new order of things popular cooperation was essential. I tried to secure it, so far as lay in my power; and, but for the unhappy atmosphere that had been created and to which I have referred, a more satisfactory measure of success would probably have attended my efforts. In pursuance of this policy I visited several towns in East, West and North Bengal, and held conferences with members of District Boards and with other leading inhabitants, and discussed with them their sanitary problems. In some places the Non-Co-operators tried to create difficulties, but the local officials were able to overcome them. Mr. Emerson, Commissioner of the Dacca Division, came all the way from Dacca to Barisal to prevent any trouble, and there was none in that stronghold of Non-Co-operation. It was the youthful section of the community that was most affected by its teachings and demonstrative in its condemnation of the Government.

​It was at Barisal only fifteen years previously that we had had the historic Barisal Conference. It was here on that occasion that one of the most notable demonstrations against the Partition of Bengal had been held. I was the central figure and the hero of that demonstration. I was acclaimed by a populace who rent the air with their cries and whose overflowing gratitude would have softened the hearts of the sternest. Fifteen years had come and gone; and in the meantime Non-Co-operation had done its work, creating a bitter feeling against the Government and all associated with it. The Reforms and the spirit of the Reforms were not able to allay this. I had come to Barisal on a work of beneficence in which politics had no part or share. I had come to promote sanita- tion, equipped with all the resources and the organization of the Government. But even such a boon, so vital to the people, was unacceptable when offered by the Government, even in the person of one who not long before was hailed as a public benefactor. I was reminded of the words of Aeneas in Virgil: timeo Danaos et dona ferentes—I fear the Greeks even when they come with gifts in their hands. The feeling was not universal; perhaps it was not even general. But it was there, a living factor in the local public senti- ment, blatant and demonstrative. I remember Mr. Montagu's remark when I said to him in London in 1919 that our people would remain grateful to him for the Reforms: 'Don't you be quite so sure of that; for there is no such thing as gratitude in politics. I did not then know that I was soon to realize this truth in my own case.

But this was not the only notable feature in connexion with my visit to Barisal. The irony of fate had ordained strange things. In 1906, when the Barisal Conference was held, Mr. Emerson was the Magistrate. It was under his orders that I was arrested and fined and the Conference was dispersed; and now, as Commissioner of the Division, he rendered me every possible help. Quantum mutatus ab illo—how changed from his former self!

A warm-hearted Irishman, a close contact with him has inspired in me feelings of respect and esteem for his personality. In India, it is often difficult to judge of a Government servant by his official conduct. He has sometimes to perform duties, under orders of superior authority, which would give a misleading idea of the man and his character. From Barisal I parted from Mr. Emerson in 1906, under an impression that had to be revised in the light of subsequent knowledge. We were brought into closer touch as ​members of the Imperial Legislative Council. He had under his supervision and control some of the détenus. As Magistrate he had to look after them, and, I am afraid, with a stern official eye. That was Mr. Emerson, the unbending Government servant. But behind the cold, rough exterior, there was beating a kindly heart, which had a soft corner for the sufferers and a clear vision of their patriotic purposes, however misguided. I remember his telling me, with undisguised respect, the story of the honesty and disinterested- ness of one of the internees under his charge; and if I rightly recol- lect, he repeated it publicly in a speech in the Council Chamber.

I once had to refer to him, in the course of a speech in the Imperial Legislative Council in connexion with the Rowlatt Bill: it was a little bit of banter in which I indulged and which both of us enjoyed. I was moving an amendment, urging that the accused should be allowed the right of appeal, which had not been provided under the Bill; and I emphasized my point by reference to the Barisal incident in which Mr. Emerson was the Magistrate and I was the accused. I said, 'I was fined Rs. 400 in that case by the Magistrate who now sits in this Chamber not very far from where I am speaking (casting a glance at Mr. Emerson, who was seated almost next to me); the order was set aside by the High Court; but, if there had been no appeal, if I had not that right, a wrong would have been perpetrated without remedy, or redress.' There was a gentle titter among members who understood the reference; and when the meeting was over, I went up to Mr. Emerson and said, 'I hope I have not offended you.' 'Far from it' was the courteous reply, 'I felt proud of it' he added.

Ever since then our relations have been friendly; and, when I visited Dacca after my appointment as Minister, I heard golden accounts of the Commissioner from all sides. When, therefore, after Mr. Bompas's retirement, the office of Chairman of the Improve- ment Trust, one of the highest in my gift, became vacant, and his name was mentioned as that of a suitable candidate, I at once accepted the suggestion and appointed him to the office. It was an appointment involving hard work, and heavy responsibility, and I think Mr. Emerson fully justified my choice. The splendid work begun by Mr. Bompas, which has harmonized important sections of our great city, has been continued with unabated vigour and undiminished efficiency; and, when at a Conference of representa- tives it was proposed to form an Improvement Trust for Howrah on the other side of the river, it was decided that the Chairman of ​the Calcutta Improvement Trust should also be the Chairman of the new Trust.

Wherever I went on tour the idea of a hartal was started by the local Non-Co-operators. It never came to much anywhere. At Faridpore, it was not seriously thought of by anybody; for there was still living, though prostrated on the bed of sickness, that out- standing personality, Babu Ambika Churn Majumder, the Grand Old Man of East Bengal, the apostle of steady and orderly progress. At Dinajpore, in North Bengal, they attempted to keep people away from the meeting; but in vain. It was not that these people did not want sanitation, but they would not apparently have it from the Government. They had, however, no hesitation in frequenting the Government law courts, where in the pursuit of their profession they made money, or in availing themselves of the Government railways, and postal and telegraph services. It was a convenient kind of Non-Co-operation, ministering to one's wants and needs, but manifesting itself in fervid demonstrations of rowdyism at public meetings daring to proclaim views unacceptable to the leaders. Their friends in the Legislative Council had a notion that we drew handsome allowances from the public funds in making these tours, and a question was asked, and an answer was given, that showed we drew nothing of the kind and that railway accom- modation alone was provided for us. As a matter of fact, these tours involved out-of-pocket expenses, and were a source of con- siderable personal trouble and inconvenience. At Dinajpore, which is badly infected with malarial fever, I slept in the Circuit House in a room covered with net-work as a precaution against mos- quitoes. The net-work did not, however, protect me. I had an attack of fever and it took me months before I could shake it off.

The object of these tours was to create an atmosphere that would stimulate the discussion of local sanitary problems and their ultimate solution. The aim was popular co-operation, and I claim that my efforts contributed to awaken popular interest in problems that seemed to be too dry and uninteresting to appeal to the popular imagination. In defending myself against the charge of inaction in the work of my Department, I used language which will bear repetition. I said:

To secure popular co-operation for the work of my Department was one of the main objects of my policy. I said in the Legislative Council, and I repeated it at public meetings, that malaria could be eradicated or its scope minimized only by the joint co-operation of the people and the Government; the Government must undertake the major works of flooding and flushing, and the minor works of village conservancy and sanitation, including local water-supply, could be left to local bodies, aided by voluntary organizations. This ​was a policy that I steadily pursued, and for the first time in the history of our Department a substantial money grant was made to the Anti-Malarial Co-operative Society and the Kala-azar Association. So far back as July, 1921, I commended the former society, the latter having not then come into existence, to the favourable notice of the Press Conference which I had invited, and I urged that the Union, the Local, and the District Boards should co-operate with these voluntary organizations. To me it is a matter of gratification to be able to feel that I have initiated a policy that in its development is bound to be fruitful of good results to village sanitation. The Anti-Malarial Co-operative Societies are spreading; and they have provided a field of beneficent activity to our village population, which will not only improve their health, but strengthen their public spirit and stimulate their civic life.

The institutions of Local Self-government are the great agencies for the promotion of public health. As Minister of Local Self- government, I sought to liberalize them and to add to their powers. Lord Morley complained in one of his Despatches that one of the reasons for the want of success of our local bodies was that they had little power and less responsibility. I myself had urged this view in the Press and from the platform; and now that I was in power I sought to remedy a state of things which I had condemned. One of the first things that I did was to de-officialize the Local Boards and to order that their Chairmen should be non-officials to be elected by the Boards. A step in the same direction was to allow the few remaining District Boards which did not yet enjoy the privilege to elect their own Chairmen. The same right was extended to several municipalities that did not possess it. Thus a definite and forward step was taken towards liberalizing the local bodies. This was done by executive order. But I went further. I initiated two projects of law one after another, only one of which I was able to place on the statute book, popularizing our municipal institutions—one of them concerning Calcutta and the other the rest of the province. I claim that both were progressive measures, a necessary corollary to the Reform Scheme. When introducing the Calcutta Municipal Bill in 1921, I said:

I was able during my term of office to amend the Calcutta Municipal Act, to introduce a Bill to amend the Bengal Municipal Act and a short Bill to amend the Local Self-government Act in regard to one or two important matters. Before proceeding further may perhaps refer to the amendment of the Bengal Municipal Act as involving a notable departure from the present law. Under the law now in force one-third of the commissioners of every munici- pality except that of Calcutta are appointed by the Government; and under executive orders, one-third of the members of every District Board are appointed by the Commissioner of the Division, subject to the administrative control of the Local Government. In practice the control of the Local Government was, before my time, more or less nominal. I felt, however, that it must be real, as the Minister representing the Local Government Department was res- ponsible to the Legislative Council, and the responsibility could only be properly exercised by his personal control of these appoint- ments. In the exercise of this responsibility, which was altogether new and created by the Reforms, I had sometimes to override the decision of the local officers. Usually they took it in good part, but on occasions there were differences and the semblance of fric- tion; my authority, however, upon which my responsibility rested, was always upheld by His Excellency the Governor. In one case I had to use strong language and to say that local officers must realize the new order of things and adapt themselves to it. The general disposition was in favour of such adaptation. And here it is only right that I should say that the attitude of both Lord Ronaldshay and Lord Lytton in relation to their Ministers was that of a constitutional sovereign, upholding, encouraging and assisting them in their work. I do not remember a single instance in which there was any serious difference of opinion leading to a dissent. I felt that I was supreme in my department, having behind me the authority and support of the Governor, and subject only to the restraint, at times somewhat irritating, of the Finance Department. On one occasion I had to urge that it was not at all the business of the Finance Department to enquire whether a particular depart- ment under me was overstaffed. That was a matter for us to decide and they must accept our decision. They had only the financial ​aspect of our proposals to deal with. I may add that I heard the same complaint from Madras and elsewhere.

As Minister-in-charge of Local Self-government, it was a part of my duty to deal with the election of chairmen by the District Boards, which, under the law, had to be confirmed by the Local Government. I had a serious difficulty in connexion with the case of Mr. B. N. Sasmal, who had been elected Chairman of the District Board of Midnapore. Mr. Sasmal was a prominent Non-Co-operator and was mainly instrumental in bringing about the abolition of the Union Boards in the Midnapore District; and the Union Boards form the basal units of the system of Local Self-government. As Minister in charge of Local Self-government responsible for its steady growth and development, was I to confirm his election, as the head of the most important organization of Local Self-government in the district? The law gave me the discretion to confirm or to veto it. All eyes were turned towards me, watching to see. what I should do.

The position was one of difficulty and even of some delicacy. It was a serious matter to set aside the decision of a statutory body electing their chief. But the authority being there, vested in the Local Government, there must be occasions when it should be exercised. Was the present one of them? That was the issue I had to decide. I cut out for myself a via media which, I thought, would enable me to protect the interests of Local Self-government, and at the same time give effect to the decision of the District Board. I sent for Mr. B. N. Sasmal. He came and saw me along with Lieutenant Bejoy Prosad Sinha Roy, a member of the Legislative Council, and gave me the assurance that as Chairman he would loyally carry out the principles and provisions of the Local Self- government Act and of local institutions established in furtherance of that Act; and he added that after the coming Council elections he would help in the establishment of the Union Boards. With this declaration of his policy, I felt that I was at liberty, with due regard to the interests of Local Self-government, to confirm the clection and appoint him Chairman of the District Board of Midnapore.