rs and country gentlemen,
have now a measure of citizenship in the modern sense of the word.

The same feeling of citizenship has been given recognition to in 759
towns, whose municipalities are now partly elected, the right of
election having been greatly extended by the Local Self-Government Acts
of 1882-84. In these Municipalities even more than in the higher
Councils the new educated Indian comes to the front. According to the
roll of voters, it is property that enjoys the municipal franchise;
emphatically so, for a wealthy citizen of Calcutta might conceivably
cast three hundred votes for his Municipality throughout the twenty-five
wards of the city; but they are English-speaking Indians in all cases
who are returned as members. Politically, this is the day of the
English-educated Indians. Such is the stage of the recognition of this
new idea of citizenship in India. The idea represents a great advance
during the British period, although, broadly speaking, it has not yet
reached the stage of British opinion prior to 1832. Nevertheless one
feels justified in saying that in present circumstances the desire of
the educated class for a measure of citizenship has been reasonably met.
Of course at the examination for the Indian Civil Service, held annually
in London, the Indian competes on a complete equality with all the youth
of the Empire.

CHAPTER VIII

NEW POLITICAL IDEAS

II. FALSE PATRIOTISM

"Now do I know that love is blind."

ALFRED AUSTIN.

[Sidenote: Cleavage of opinion--European _v._ Native.]

An unpleasant aspect of the new idea is much in evidence at the present
time. On almost every public question, the cleavage of the public
opinion is Europeans _versus_ Natives. Far be it from me to assert that
the natives only are carried away by the community feeling. A case in
point is the violence of the European agitation over the "Ilbert Bill"
of 1883, to permit trial of Europeans by native judges in rural criminal
courts. Our question merely is: How has the new regime affected native
ideas? Given then, say, a charge of assault upon a native by a European
or Eurasian, or the reverse--a case by no means unknown--the native
press and the class they represent are ranged at once, as a matter of
course, upon the native's side. Given a great public matter, like Lord
Curzon's Bill of 1903 for the necessary reform of the Indian
Universities, immediately educated Indians and the native press perce