Mr. Jasper laughed a little nervously.
“It was India that whipped Napoleon.”
“There’s some shock to that statement. Tell me how.”
“In the fifty-seven years between the battles of Plassey and Waterloo, England looted a billion in pounds sterling—five thousand million dollars—from the conquered Indian people. This was the price India paid for bondage, for ruined industries and periodic famines. This was the period of England’s military expansion. The army that crushed Napoleon was fed and clothed and armed by Indian tributes.”
Neither spoke for a moment, and the stranger added with an impressiveness that Mr. Jasper never forgot: “It is rather stirring to remember that this old India was highly civilized, in a rich meaning of the expression, ripe in arts, letters, and incomparable philosophies, when the ancestors of the English were painted savages. India was the leader of Asiatic civilization, and perhaps the richest country in the world, when England broke in upon her. What is old India now? Hearken to the souls passing in little Rydamphur to-night!”
“But what, in God’s name, can be done?” Mr. Jasper demanded.
“When England begins to treat India as she would be forced to treat a colony of white men, aggressive as Americans, for instance, India will begin to discover her gray of morning.”
“But England won’t do that until India becomes a militant people.”
“No, I’m afraid not. England still has much of her imperialistic arrogance.... A little while ago, one of the ablest of the native editors, an old man, was banished from the country for six years because he published an article in his paper pointing out his country’s misfortunes. This aged editor was a Murahti, and during his trial called for a Murahti jury. On the contrary, the jury was made of English and Parsees. The prisoner did not know a word of the court’s proceedings until an interpreter informed him of his banishment. Another young Hindu nobleman was recently banished for life because he took part in public speeches. The English judge who sentenced this young man declared that there was no reason for one Hindu addressing a gathering of Hindus, since the latter had no votes. I call that a rather interesting political homily.”
“It is chief among outrages,” declared Mr. Jasper.