e members chosen by the
people and a considerable number of other members chosen from
municipal boards, chambers of commerce, universities, etc., we now see
the spectacle of Provincial Councils with non-official members in the
majority. In Bombay the non-official element is two thirds of the
whole; and in Madras also the non-official members could defeat the
government if they chose to combine and do so. But of course the
greater willingness of the government to cooperate with the people has
brought {252} about a greater willingness on the part of the people to
cooperate with the government."

"The appointment of Indians to the highest offices charged with the
responsibility of government; the increased representation given the
people on the legislative and executive councils; the recognition of
the right of the people to elect instead of merely to nominate
members; and the surrender of majority-control to the non-official
element--all these are very substantial gains, but the spirit back of
them is worth more than the reforms themselves. While there is a
feeling in some quarters that the government has not gone far enough,
the large majority of my educated countrymen regard the advance as
sufficient for the present and look forward with hope to a further
expansion of our powers and privileges."

If I may judge by what I gathered from conversation with Hindus,
Mohammedans, Parsees, I should say that no one has given a more
accurate and clear-cut statement of the feelings of the Indian people
than has Mr. Krishnaswami Iyer in these few terse sentences.

"The wealth of the Indies" has been a favorite phrase with romantic
writers from time immemorial; and a book now before me speaks in the
most matter-of-course way of "the prosperous and peaceful empire." Yet
the Indian is really one of the poorest men on earth. The wealth with
which the Moguls and kings of former ages dazzled the world was wrung
from the hard hands of peasants who were governed upon the theory that
what the king wanted was his, and what he left was theirs. Even the
splendid palaces and magnificent monuments, such as the Taj Mahal,
were built largely by forced, unpaid labor. In some cases it is said
that the monarch did not even deign to furnish food for the men whom
he called away from the support of their families.

An ignorant people is always a poor people, and we have already seen
that only 10 per cent. of the men in India can read or write, and o