(     21     )

The Interests of the Masses.

The Bureaucracy and Educated India.

l6.    A strong claim  is made in the report that the
official has hitherto been the best friend of the ryot, and
that   he  must therefore  retain  power  to  protect  him
" until   it is clear  that his interests can safely be left
in his ov/n hands or that the Legislative Councils repre¬
sent and consider his interests.    So with the depressed
classes."    No one v/ould quarrel   with the desire of the
official to  take every reasonable precaution to protect
the interests of the ryot and of the depressed classes.
But the claim that the bureaucracy  has hitherto been
the   best friend  of these classes can only be conceded
in a limited  sense and requires to be examined.    This
has become all the more necessary in  view of the fact
that it  is stated in the   report that  " the prospects  of
advance very greatly depend upon how far the educated
Indian is in sympathy with and capable of fairly repre-
senting  the   illiterate   masses."     We   have  also  been
reminded that it is urged  that " the  politically-minded
classes stand somewhat apart from and in advance of
the ordinary   life of the  country.'    The distinguished
authors of the proposals have addressed a ver}' kindly-
appeal to the educated classes that  " if they resent the
suggestion that has been made that they have hitherto
safe-guarded their own position and shown insufficient
interest in the peasant and labouring  population,  now
is the  opportunity  for   them   to acquit themselves of
such an imputation and to come forward as  leaders  of
the  people  as a whole."    Several of the proposals for
reserving power  to  the bureaucracy and not extendinf^
it to the educated  Indian, until the peasant  and the
labourer has learnt the  lesson of self-protection, seem
to be based on the idea that the former is their better
ificnd.    It has become necessary therefore to go briefly
into this question.