INDIA: Indiscreet Maharaja

Frankness pushed to the brink of indiscretion characterized, last week, an address delivered in London by the Honorable Sir Bijay Chand Mahtab, Mahara-jadhiraja Bahadur of Burdwan.** Said his Highness: “It is no use shutting our eyes to the fact that there is in India today a volume of opinion, small, perhaps, but yet not negligible, and which is growing every day not only in strength but intensely, which desires to get rid of British rule at all costs.

“I set myself against this opinion. I believe that if India is tired of white rule, and if the British are tired of ruling India, then India must be prepared either to be ruled by the yellow race, or by those of the brown races whose religion is other than Hinduism, or by Soviet Russia.

“Let India choose. Personally, though I may be called unpatriotic, or even a traitor by those who in their idealism want an independent India; I take the British connection as the only solution of India’s problems.”

** Although not a reigning prince, he owns and exercises great authority over vast estates in Bengal on which dwell nearly 1,000,000 Indians.