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OUR ORIENTAL FUTURE
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wrong are still to be entered on all ledgers, and the account-books of history can never be totted up; if the Koran on the one side, and the Shastras on the other, are to be the fixed poles of inexhaustible hate—then the sword of England must still be girded to maintain a civilisation which must be still belligerent.

But it is said by others that Indian independence is not within their calculations, at least. They claim that something much more modest is wanted, colonial self-government—Swaraj. India is to be a Canada or Australia, only more so. This scheme has been sketched by an authoritative native hand. To begin with, the grant of colonial self-government is to be wrung from us by an extensive strike or boycott. What will be the first thing that India will do with Swaraj? "We will impose a heavy prohibitive tariff upon every inch of textile fabric from Manchester, upon every blade of knife that comes from Sheffield. We shall refuse to grant admittance to a British soul into our territory. We would not allow British capital to be engaged in the development of Indian resources, as it is now engaged. We shall want foreign capital. But we shall apply for foreign loans in the open market of the whole world, guaranteeing the credit of the Indian Government, the Indian nation, for the repayment of the loan." A pleasing prospect, till one remembers those fatal "locusts" of Pathans, always ready to disable able editors, or to "open their columns" to rich Bengalis, and