A Nation in Making/Chapter 5

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5

The Indian Association

After my return from England in June, 1875, and along with the work of organizing the students and infusing into them a new life and spirit, I began seriously to consider the advisability of forming an Association to represent the views of the educated middle-class community and inspire them with a living interest in public affairs. There was indeed the British Indian Association, which, under the guidance of the great Kristo Das Pal, who was then secretary, valiantly upheld the popular interests when necessary; but it was essentially and by its creed an Association of land-holders. Nor did an active political agitation, or the creation of public opinion by direct appeals to the people, form a part of its recognized programme. There was thus the clear need for another political Association on a more democratic basis, and the fact was indeed recognized by the leaders of the British Indian Association. For some of its most distinguished members, such as the Maharaja Narendra Krishna, Babu Kristo Das Pal, and others, attended the inaugural meeting of the new Association, and encouraged its formation by their presence. And let me gratefully add here that, throughout, the relations between the new Association and the British Indian were of the most cordial character, and this was due largely to the influence and example of Kristo Das Pal, one of the greatest political leaders that Bengal, or India, has ever produced. Mr. Ananda Mohan Bose and myself joined hands in this matter. I had more leisure than he, but we were in frequent consultation.

Associated with us in our efforts to organize a new Association upon popular lines was a devoted worker, comparatively unknown then, and, I fear, even now, whose memory deserves to be rescued from oblivion. Dwarakanath Ganguli began life as a teacher, and while yet young embraced Brahmoism. In the schism that took place between the two wings of the Brahmo-Samaj he sided with ​the dissentients and actively promoted the establishment of the Sadharan Brahmo-Samaj. An ardent lover of what he believed to be the truth, when he took up a cause he threw his whole soul into it. His co-operation in the organization of the new Association was of great value to us; and so long as health and strength were spared to him he worked in the cause of the Association with an energy and devotion, the memory of which, now that he is dead, his friends cherish with affectionate gratitude.

After a year’s preparation, the Indian Association was established on July 26, 1876, The name was the subject of anxious consideration among our friends. Pundit Iswar Chunder Vidyasagar and Mr. Justice Dwarakanath Mitter, while still a member of the Bar, had formed the idea of organizing a similar Association which was to be the voice and the organ of the middle classes. The idea had to be given up as it did not at the time meet with much support; but the name they had chosen for their proposed organization was the Bengal Association. We thought that such a name, or anything like it, would restrict the scope of our work. For the idea that was working in our minds was that the Association was to be the centre of an all-India movement. For even then, the conception of a united India, derived from the inspiration of Mazzini, or, at any rate, of bringing all India upon the same common political platform, had taken firm possession of the minds of the Indian leaders in Bengal. We accordingly resolved to call the new political body the Indian Association.

The inaugural meeting was marked by an incident that deserves a passing notice. Babu Kali Churn Banerjee, who, next to the Rev. K. M. Banerjee, was the foremost Indian Christian leader of his generation, and who subsequently became President of the Indian Association, opposed its formation, chiefly on the ground that a similar Association, under the name of the Indian League, had been established a few months before. I replied to his arguments, and the public meeting ratified the resolution creating the Association.

The Indian League did useful work. Babu Sisir Kumar Ghose of the Amrita Bazar Patrika, Dr. Sambhoo Chunder Mookerjee of the Rais and Rayyet, and Babu Motilal Ghose, were its moving spirits. It has ceased to exist and some of its leading members have joined the Indian Association.

I attended the inaugural meeting of the Indian Association under the shadow of a great domestic bereavement. At eleven o’clock ​on the morning of July 26, my son died. I had some idea that the meeting would not pass off quietly and that there would be opposition offered to the establishment of the Association. I made up my mind, despite my personal sorrow and with the full concurrence of my wife, that I should attend the inaugural meeting. No one at the meeting knew anything at all about my bereavement, though it became widely known on the following day. This is not the only time that I have had to perform_a public duty under the weight of a great personal bereavement. My dearly beloved wife died on December 23, 1911; on the 26th I attended the meeting of the Indian National Congress of that year. and, in the absence of the gentleman entrusted with the duty, | had to propose the election of the President, Pundit Bishen Narayan Dhur, about whose public career J had only a very general idea.

The Indian Association supplied a real need. It soon focused the public spirit of the middle class, and became the centre of the leading representatives of the educated community of Bengal. Mr. Ananda Mohan Bose was elected Secretary, Babu Akshay Kumar Sirker, who has since made a name for himself as a Bengalee writer, was appointed Assistant Secretary. I held no office, but I was one of the most active members of the Association. In view of my removal from Government service, I kept myself in the background. but 1 worked zealously for the Association, knowing no higher pleasure or duty, and bent upon realizing through this institution the great ideals which even at.that early period had taken definite possession of my mind. They may be set forth as follows: (1) The creation of a strong body of public opinion in the country; (2) the unification of the Indian races and p2oples upon the basis of common political interests and aspirations; (3) the promotion of friendly feeling between Hindus and Mohamedans; and, lastly, the inclusion of the masses in the great public movements of the day. T worked for these ideals; others have worked for them too, for they were in the air, and the possession and property of every thoughtful and patriotic Indian; and now, after nearly fifty years of public life, I have the gratification of feeling that, if they have not been wholly realized, they are within a measurable distance of accomplishment. The Indian Association materially helped to promote these ideals. They were the natural and normal development of the efforts of the great men of the past, under the new conditions created by the closer touch of our best minds with the political thought and activities of the West.

​Upon my mind the writings to Mazzini had created a profound impression. The purity of his patriotism, the loftiness of his ideals, and his all-embracing love for humanity, expressed with the true eloquence of the heart, moved me as I had never before been moved. I discarded his revolutionary teachings as unsuited to the circumstances of India and as fatal to its normal development, along the lines of peaceful and orderly progress; but I inculcated, with all the emphasis that I could command, the enduring lessons of his noble life, lived for the sake of others, his lofty patriotism, his self-abnegation, and his heroic devotion to the interests of humanity. It was Mazzini, the incarnation of the highest moral forces in the political arena—Mazzini, the apostle of Italian unity, the friend of the human race, that I presented to the youth of Bengal. Mazzini had taught Italian unity. We wanted Indian unity. Mazzini had worked through the young. I wanted the young men of Bengal to realize their potentialities and to qualify themselves to work for the salvation of their country, but upon lines instinct with the spirit of constitutionalism. I lectured upon Mazzini, but took care to tell the young men to abjure his revolutionary ideals, and to adopt his spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion in the paths of constitutional development. I persuaded Babu Jagendranath Vidyabhuson and Babu Rajani Kanto Gupta, both distinguished Bengalee writers, to translate into our language the life and work of Mazzini in the spirit of my addresses, so as to place them within the reach of those who did not understand English. I soon popularized Mazzini among the young men of Bengal. No dire consequences followed, for the conditions that create the revolutionary spirit were wanting. They are the work of Governments that misread the signs of the times, and not of the so-called agitator, or of the ardent patriot who works for the amelioration of the lot of his people.

Within a year of the foundation of the Indian Association, the first great opportunity presented itself for realizing some of those great ideals that had given birth to the Association. Reactionary tulers are often the creators of great public movements. They will no doubt deny the charge or repudiate the credit; but they certainly sow the seeds which, in the fullness of time, ensure the enthronement of popular opinion and the triumph of popular causes. The reduction of the maximum limit of age, for the open competitive examination for the Indian Civil Service, from twenty-one to nineteen years, by the orders of the Marquis of Salisbury, then Secretary of State for India, created a painful impression throughout India. It ​was regarded as a deliberate attempt to blast the prospects of Indian candidates for the Indian Civil Service. The Indian Association resolved upon organizing a national movement. A great public meeting was held at the Town Hall on March 24, 1877. It was presided over by Maharaja Sir Narendra Krishna Bahadur, and was representative of the whole of Bengal. Not only were the leading men of Calcutta present, but also delegates from the interior of the province. Keshub Chunder Sen, who had never in his life taken part in any political meeting, was persuaded to move the election of the President.

This meeting was one of the biggest public demonstrations held in Calcutta; it was destined to be the forerunner of similar and even more crowded meetings held all over India. The agitation was the means; the raising of the maximum limit of age for the open competitive examination and the holding of simultaneous examinations were among the ends; but the underlying conception, and the true aim and purpose, of the Civil Service agitation was the awakening of a spirit of unity and solidarity among the people of India. It was accordingly resolved to appeal to the whole of India and bring the various Indian provinces upon the same common platform (a thing that had never been attempted before), and to unite them through a sense of a common grievance and the inspiration of a common resolve. It was an inspiring ideal, and to me it appealed with overwhelming effect.

I was appointed Special Delegate to visit the different provinces. This was of my own seeking; the conception was mine, and the agent for carrying it out was myself. I went about collecting subscriptions, and entered upon the task with alacrity and enthusiasm. Taking advantage of the summer vacation of the Metropolitan Institution, where I was then employed as Professor, I started for Upper India on May 26, 1877, accompanied by Babu Nagendra Nath Chatterjee, a member of our Committee, who was well known at the time as a most eloquent speaker in the Bengalee language. We started about the hottest time of the year, and Babu Nilcomol Mitter of Allahabad, with whom I was in correspondence regarding this tour, warned me that I was incurring a grave risk. Risk or no risk, I had made up my mind and there was no going back. We went straight to Agra, where my friend, the late Babu Abinash Chunder Banerjee, was stationed as Subordinate Judge.

Abinash Chunder Banerjee and myself had been playmates. He passed the examinations cf the Calcutta University with great credit. ​After obtaining the B.L. degree, he established himself in the United Provinces, with a view to practising as a lawyer; but he soon exchanged the Bar for the Bench and joined the Judicial Service. In early life he had been a staunch adherent of the Brahmo-Samaj, when Calcutta was seething with excitement under the eloquence of Keshub Chunder Sen; but when | saw him at Agra in 1877 he had gone back to the old faith. But whether as a Brahmo, or as a Hindu, he was one of the finest of men and one of the most agreeable of companions. His brilliant career on the Bench was prematurely cut short but his memory is still cherished with affection by those who knew him, and he will be remembered as the worthy father of a still more famous son, the late Dr. Satis Chandra Banerjee, whose early death Bengal and the United Provinces mourn. We met after a long time. and revived the memories of olden days. The whole plan of campaign we settled there.

It is worthy of attention that in those days Government servants were permitted to attend political meetings and to take an interest in political affairs. At the Bankipore meeting held in connexion with this question, the young Maharaja of Cocch-Behar, then a ward of the Government, attended, and Major Hidyat Khan Bahadur, C.S.J., a military officer, seconded one of the resolutions. But with the development of public life and the growth of public spirit in the country, the attitude of the Government has changed. Under recent orders public servants may attend political meetings, but they are not to take part in them. As a matter of fact, they usually do not even attend; for, whatever the published orders may be, the settled official attitude towards all public efforts is one of suspicion, if not of mistrust, and the subordinate officers take their cue from those in authority over them. I use the expression ‘all public efforts’ advisedly, for even the Ramkrishna Mission, a mission of benevolence and philanthropy without a tinge of politics in its aims or aspirations, was the subject of jealous watchfulness by the Criminal Investigation Department. Under the Reforms, however, the authorities are beginning to have a more rational outlook upon political and public demonstrations.

At Agra the Civil Service Memorial, which I had taken with me (it was the Calcutta Memorial) was translated into Urdu and lithographed. It was decided that I should proceed at once to Lahore and hold the first public meeting in the capital of the Punjab. It was felt that a demonstration there would be far more impressive ​and telling than one held in any other place in Upper India. At Lahore I was received with the utmost kindness by my countrymen of all denominations, Hindus, Mohamedans and Sikhs. It was an exhibition of friendliness that was a revelation to me, It showed that a common system of administration and education had prepared the ground for the realization of one of our most cherished ideals, namely, united action by the different Indian provinces for the fulfilment of our common national aims and aspirations. At a crowded public meeting of all sections of the Indian community held at Lahore, the Calcutta Resolutions and Memorial on the Civil Service question were adopted. At another public meeting I spoke on the question of Indian Unity, and a political Association under the name of the Lahore Indian Association was formed. Its constitution was modelled on that of the Indian Association of Calcutta. It was affiliated to that body. It was, I believe, the first political organization in the Punjab that provided a common platform fer all sections of the Indian community. It has done valuable public work for the province.

In the Punjab I formed friendships, the memory of which, though the friends, alas, are now dead, is a grateful treasure of my life. There for the first time I met Sirdar Dayal Singh Majeetia. Our acquaintance soon ripened into warm personal friendship. He was one of the truest and noblest men whom I have ever come across. It was perhaps difficult to know him and to get to the bottom of his heart, for there was a certain air of aristocratic reserve about him, which hid from public view the pure gold that formed the stuff of his nature. He threw himself actively into the work for which I had been deputed. I persuaded him to start a newspaper at Lahore. I purchased for him at Calcutta the first press for the Tribune newspaper and to me he entrusted the duty of selecting the first editor. | recommended the late Sitala Kanta Chatterjee of Dacca for the post, and his successful career as the first editor amply justified my choice. His fearless courage, his penetrating insight into the heart of things, and above all his supreme honesty of purpose, the first and last qualification of an Indian journalist, soon placed him in the front rank of those who wielded their pen in the defence of their country’s interests.

The Tribune rapidly became a powerful organ of public opinion; it is now perhaps the most influential Indian journal in the Punjab, and is edited by a gentleman who in his early career was associated with me as a member of the staff of the Bengalee. But it is not ​the only gift that the Sirdar gave to the Punjab. He gave away all he had for the benefit of his country; and the Dayal Singh College is an enduring monument of one of the worthiest sons of the Punjab, whose carly death all India mourns in common with the province of his birth.

Prominently associated with Sirdar Dayal Singh Majeetia in the public work to which I have referred, were Dr. Surajball, Pundit Ramnarain, and last but not least, Babu Kali Prosanna Roy. Dr. Surajball was a graduate of Oxford and rose to a high position in the service of the Kashmir State; Pundit Ramnarain was an able lawyer. He was the first Indian who officiated as a judge of the Punjab Chief Court, and if he had been spared he would have been confirmed in that appointment. Kali Prosanna Roy was a brilliant lawyer who, after qualifying himself for the Bar, had taken up his residence in Lahore to practise his profession. As an advocate he hardly had an equal at the Lahore Bar. But he was not a mere lawyer; he was an agreeable companion, and an earnest Indian patriot. He took a prominent part in all public movements; and, when failing health compelled him to retire to his native village in Bengal, he endowed it with works of public utility. The name of such a man should be rescued from oblivion. But | am afraid, in this country, public services are often readily forgotten; for the prevailing temper is one of criticism and not of service, or of admiration for service.

Leaving Lahore, I visited Amritsar, Meerut, Allahabad, Delhi, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Aligarh, and Benares. At all these places crowded public meetings were held, at which the Calcutta Resolutions and the Civil Service Memorial were adopted, and, wherever practicable, political organizations were formed to act in concert with the Indian Association of Calcutta. Such Associations were formed at Lahore, Meerut, Allahabad, Cawnpore and Lucknow. Thus a network of organizations was started, and the foundations were well and truly laid, as subsequent events fully proved, for united and concerted action among our representative men, over an area extending from Calcutta to Lahore. The movement with all its potentialities was to receive a still further expansion when, in the following year, upon the selfsame errand, I visited Madras and Bombay and some of the towns in the western presidency.

My tour through Northern India, great as was its political potentialities, was to me a source of unmixed personal pleasure and instruction. I came in contact with all the leaders of thought ​in Northern India, belonging to a generation that has now passed away. Sir Syed Ahmed, Pundit Ajodhyanath, Pundit Bishambar Nath, Raja Ameer Hossain of Mahmudabad, Babu Aiswarya Narayan Singh, Babu Hurrish Chunder, and Babu Ramkali Chowdhury of Benares, were men of whom any community might well be proud. They differed in their temperaments, in their intellectual capacity, and even in the quality of their civic spirit, but they all loved the motherland and were eager to serve her.

The most famous of those whom I met was undoubtedly Sir Syed Ahmed, the founder of the Aligarh College and one of the greatest leaders of the Moslem community under British rule. He did not know a word of English, but, more than any other Mohamedan leader of his generation, he realized how necessary English education was for the advancement of his community, and he had the will to resolve, and genius to organize, a movement for imparting it upon a scale of far-reaching comprehensiveness, and under conditions of permanence and utility that have immortalized his name. He received me with the utmost kindness, and our friendly relations continued, notwithstanding differences of opinion, which the Congress movement subsequently gave rise to. He presided at the Civil Service meeting at Aligarh, which accepted the Calcutta Resolutions, among which was one in favour of simultaneous examinations. It is worthy of note, however that, as a member of the Public Services Commission of 1887, he signed the report of the majority, and did not join Sir Romesh Chunder Mitter and Rai Bahadur Nulkar in their support of simultaneous examinations.

It can serve no useful purpose to recall at this distance of time the memory of controversies that are now past and well-nigh forgotten. We lost his championship and the great weight of his personal influence and authority in the controversies that gathered round the Congress movement. His Patriotic Association was started in opposition to it. But even the greatest amongst us has his limitations. The Patriotic Association has disappeared; the Congress has continued to live and flourish. But let bygones be bygones. Let us not forget the debt of gratitude that Hindus and Mohamedans alike owe to the honoured memory of Sir Syed Ahmed. For the seeds that he sowed are bearing fruit; and to day the Aligarh College, now raised to the status of a University, is the centre of that culture and enlightenment which has made Islam in India instinct with the modern spirit, and aglow with that patriotic ​enthusiasm which augurs well for the future solidarity of Hindus andMohamedans.

The success that had attended my efforts in Northern India encouraged my friends to depute me on the same mission to Western, and Southern, India. I started for Bombay in the winter of 1878. The Bombay leaders had already been informed of my mission; and they received me with kindness and cordiality. Mr. Vishanarain Mandlik, Mr. Kashinath Trembuck Telang, and Mr. (afterwards Sir) Pherozshah Mehta, were the leaders of Bombay public opinion. All af them are now, alas, dead and gone. A public meeting was held in Bombay, and the Civil Service Resolutions and Memorial were in substance adopted. I then proceeded to Surat, and Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat. Civil Service meetings were held and the Calcutta Resolutions were adopted in both places. I then returned to Bombay, and from Bombay I proceeded to Poona, where I was the guest of the late Mr. Ranade.

Mr. Ranade was then a Subordinate Judge, but his official position never overshadowed his instincts or interfered with his duties as a citizen. He was a constant figure on the Congress platform as a visitor, and he was the power behind the throne, guiding, advising and encouraging the Congress leaders in their work. His simplicity, the charm of his manners, his intellectual eminence, and his genuine and all-consuming love of country, fascinated all who came in contact with him. I was his guest at Poona, and he treated me as a member of his family.

From Poona, where a meeting was held and our Resolutions were adopted, I proceeded to Madras, where I became the guest of Dr. Dhanakatu Raju. I called on the Madras leaders, including Mr. Chensal Row, the Hon’ble Humayoon Jah Bahadur, and others, and I urged them to hold a public meeting to discuss the Civil Service question. For some reason or other a meeting could not be held; and we had a conference of leading men at Pacheappa’s Hall, at which our Memorial and Resolutions were adopted. Madras to-day, so instinct with the public life of India, is very different from what Madras was in 1878. To-day it is fully on a line with the rest of India as regards its public spirit and its efforts for the public good. In 1878, it was the only place in all India where I found it impossible to hold a public meeting upon a question of vital interest to our people, and in regard to which there was practical unanimity all over India.

​I returned home from my tour as quickly as I could, for I had important work in Calcutta. Our programme was, after securing absolute unanimity of opinion all over India, expressed through public meetings at various centres, to carry on the agitation in England and make the voice of India heard there, through our chosen representative, belonging to our own people and uttering our sentiments. Mr. Routledge, late Editor of the Friend of India, writing about this novel departure, said that it was ‘an inspired idea’. We claimed for it no special illumination. It was prompted by love of country, as pure and as warm as ever glowed in any human breast, and the sequel proved that it was a golden idea, fruitful of a rich harvest.

It may not be out of place here to pause for a moment, to consider the net result of the tour I had undertaken all over India. For the first time under British rule, India, with its varied races and religions, had been brought upon the same platform for a common and united effort. Thus was it demonstrated, by an object-lesson of impressive significance, that, whatever might be our differences in respect of race and language, or social and religious institutions, the people of India could combine and unite for the attainment of their common political ends. The lesson thus learnt was to be confirmed and deepened by subsequent events to which I shall refer later on, and it found its culminating expression in the Congress movement. The ground was thus prepared for this great national and unifying movement. The public men of the time were not forgetful cf the lesson thus taught; and a deputation of the Puna Sarvajanik Sabha, which visited Calcutta in 1878, pointedly referred to it at a conference held in the rooms of the British Indian Association, as opening the way for the united political efforts of an awakened India.

Sir Henry Cotton in his book, New India, which at the time created a unique sensation, thus referred to my tour:

The All-India Memorial on the Civil Service question was addressed to the House of Commons. It was a memorial that sought to obtain a modification of the orders of the Secretary of State for India, by raising the limit of age for the open competitive examination to twenty-two years, the maximum limit now in force, and it contained a further prayer for simultaneous examinations in India as well as in England. The Memorial might have been despatched by post to the House of Commons as had been done in similar cases in the past. But a new idea had taken possession of the public mind. We had brought all India upon the same platform upon a public question that concerned the entire educated community; and we felt that so unique a demonstration should find its suitable expression through the voice of an Indian representative explaining to British audiences this pressing grievance of his countrymen. I was asked to be our delegate to England. I had to decline it for reasons that were apparent on the surface. In England, in view of my antecedents, my advocacy for the wider employment of my countrymen in a service from which I had been removed, would be liable to misconstruction. The choice of the Indian Association fell upon Mr. Lalmohan Ghose, and Mr. Lalmohan Ghose’s phenomenal success in his mission fully justified the selection. His marvellous gifts of oratory were unknown to us, for he had never before taken to public life as a serious occupation; and when they were displayed in a manner that extorted the admiration of his audience, among whom was the greatest of living orators, John Bright, the revelation was a bewildering and an agreeable surprise. Carnot took credit for discovering Napoleon while the latter was yet an unknown young subaltern. The leaders of the Indian Association warmly congratulated themselves on having discovered one who was the first Indian to stand for Parliamentary honours, and who was destined to occupy a leading place in the ranks of our public life.

But a deputation to England was a costly affair. There were of course the prophets of evil who, Cassandra-like, told us that the money would be wasted and that the deputation would prove futile. Our success in the Civil Service agitation all over India had inspired ​us with confidence; and we were in no mood to listen to the counsels of timidity. I applied myself to the task of collecting subscriptions; and in less than six months’ time I had raised the necessary funds, chiefly among our middle class people.

The only substantial sum. that we obtained was from the Maharani Swarnamoyee. I fortified myself with a letter from Babu Bankim Chunder Chatterjee, the great Bengalee novelist, who evinced the utmost sympathy with the whole movement. Armed with this letter and accompanied by my indefatigable friend, Babu Dwarakanath Ganguli, we called upon Rai Rajib Lochan Rai Bahadur, manager of the Maharani Swarnamoyee’s estate, at his house at Berhampore. The old man received us with kindness, but he promised us only one-half of what we wanted. We thanked him, of course, though we made it clear that we expected more. We took leave of him, and, as we were about to step into the street from his house, he summoned us back and said, ‘I have reconsidered the matter and promise the whole amount you want’. We thanked him very heartily and left his house, blessing him and the Maharani Swarnamoyee. This was the first and last time that I met Rajib Lochan Rai. The present generation knows him not. Soon his memory will pass out of the public recollection. But if the Maharani Swarnamoyee was, during her lifetime, known as the ‘Lady Bountiful’ of Cossimbazar, Rai Rajib Lochan was the inspirer of her beneficence, the power behind the throne. He it was who rescued the Cossimbazar Estate from forfeiture, and under his wise counsels the Maharani Swarnamoyee applied its vast resources to acts of private charity and public usefulness, which during her lifetime made her name a household word in Bengal.

I feel tempted to quote in this place an instance that illustrates the catholicity of her beneficence, which rose superior to all considerations of creed and colour. An Afghan merchant from Ghazni came and sought my help to recover certain moneys that he claimed from Government for supplying camels during the Afghan War of 1878. He came to me as a pauper and indeed a ruined man. He had lost his case and he had not even money enough to enable him to return home. I estimated the cost of the return journey to Ghazni at Rs. 150; and I applied to the Maharani for the money, telling her the whole story. She sent me Rs. 150, and the poor Afghan returned home, rejoicing and blessing the Maharani.

The money having been raised for the purpose, Mr. Lalmohan ​Ghose was placed in charge of the Civil Service Memorial to Parliament, and was deputed to England as the representative of the Indian Association.

Mr. Lalmohan Ghose’s work may be said to open a new chapter in our history, in the potentialities it disclosed of what might be done by Indian deputations to England. He set to work with resolute energy, and he received valuable help from Mr. Chesson, Secretary of the Aborigines Protection Society, and from Sir David Wedderburn, brother of Sir William Wedderburn, who is perhaps less known to the present generation than his distinguished brother, though he was one of the earliest to suggest representative government for India, and I had the honour of corresponding with him on the subject. A great meeting was held at Willis’s Rooms under the presidency of John Bright. Mr. Ghose spoke with a power and eloquence that excited the admiration of ail, and evoked the warmest tribute from the President.

The effect of that meeting was instantaneous. Within twenty-four hours of it, there were laid on the table of the House of Commons, the Rules creating what was subsequently known as the Statutory Civil Service. Under the Parliamentary Statute of 1870, the Government of India were empowered, subject to rules that were to be framed, to make direct appointments of natives of India of proved merit and ability to the Covenanted Civil Service. For over seven years the Government of India had slept over the matter. But so great was the impression created by the demonstration at Willis’s Rooms, having behind it the sentiment of united India, that the Rules, which were only four in number and had been delayed for seven years, were published within twenty-four hours of that meeting.

Thus the deputation of an Indian to England voicing India’s grievances was attended with an unexpected measure of success; and the experiment was in future years tried again and again, confirming the wisdom and foresight of those who had conceived the idea and carried it out. Indeed, Mr. Lalmohan Ghose was, soon after his return to India, again deputed to England by the Indian Association. It was during his stay on this occasion that he stood as a candidate for Parliamentary election in the Liberal interest; and if it were not for the Irish vote that went against him, almost at the last moment, he would have been entitled to the high distinction reserved for India’s Grand Old Man, Mr. Dadabhai ​Naoroji, of being the first Indian Member of Parliament. At any rate he prepared the ground and was a pioneer in the cause.

Long afterwards, in 1890, when I visited Deptford, Mr. Lalmohan Ghose’s constituency, to address a public meeting upon Indian questions, I found that there was a kindly remembrance of him, among his old friends and supporters. His genius and eloquence had made an abiding impression upon all who had heard him or had come within the reach of his personal influence. To the people of India the early death of such a man was a catastrophe. I had known him since 1869, and for forty years we were united by ties of the closest friendship. In later years, ill-health and his growing infirmities had somewhat weaned him from public life; but his interest in public affairs never waned, and, whenever he took part in them, his judgment was as clear and his utterance as emphatic as ever.