first session by the proposal of Lord Hardinge's Government to
place permanently on the statute-book the Prevention of
Seditious Meetings Act, which had been enacted in 1007 at the
time of the Punjab disturbances as a temporary measure. Mr.
Gokhale and three other leading nationalists were opposed to
the retention of the Act on the ground that the general situation
was no longer such as to justify so exceptional a measure. But
the majority of the non-official members were content to accept
Lord Hardinge's assurance that the lapse of the Act would en-
danger the public tranquillity, and his promise that it would
never be applied to any part of India unless a clear necessity
arose. In the same session the announcement that the King-
Emperor and Queen-Empress would visit India in the winter
was received with great enthusiasm.
The King's Visit. The royal visit was a complete success. The presence of the King-Emperor and his consort in India touched the imagination of the people. The Delhi ceremonies drew vast crowds eager to see and salute the sovereign. When a visit to Calcutta followed, the welcome given by the populace of that city was even more enthusiastic and unrestrained. On Dec. 12 1911, in a great arena outside Delhi specially prepared for the occasion, the King held a coronation durbar at which he received in person the homage of the great officers of state and the ruling princes and chiefs of the Indian Empire. Largesse and " boons " of various kinds were granted and an announcement made of great political moment. The seat of the Government of India was to be transferred from Calcutta to Delhi; Eastern Bengal reunited to Bengal and the enlarged province given a Governor in Council; Bihar, Orissa and Chota Nagpur, tracts which are loosely connected with Bengal proper, made a Lieuten- ant-Governorship in Council; and Assam formed into a Chief Commissionership. The secret had been well kept and the surprise was complete. The scheme, though open to obvious objections, was ingenious and cleverly balanced. A reasoned exposition of its object is contained in a despatch, dated Aug. 25 E from the Government of India to the Secretary of State, submitting the proposed changes for the home Government's approval in advance of the King's visit. In the foreground was placed the desirability of removing the Government of India from Calcutta, where its presence diminished the dignity and responsibility of the local Government, and where it unavoidably was subject to Calcutta opinion to the exclusion of that of other parts of India. The removal of the Government of India to a capital of its own would, it was urged, facilitate the growth of local government in India on sound and safe lines. India was envisaged as consisting in the not remote future of a number of administrations, autonomous in all provincial affairs, with the Government of India above them all, but with its functions ordinarily restricted to matters of Imperial concern. It was essential to this evolution that the central Government should not be associated with any local Government, but should have a separate and independent capital. The withdrawal from Calcutta of the Government of India would also, it was urged, make a second long-desired object possible. Calcutta could be made the seat of a Governor-in-Council and placed on an equality with the two other presidential capitals. As to the third change proposed the modification of the " partition " the despatch laid stress on the unforeseen bitterness of feeling, " widespread and unyielding," which the partition had created, and on certain real disadvantages to which it had subjected the Bengalis in both provinces into which the old province had been divided. In each province the Bengalis were in a minority. " As matters now stand, the Bengalis can never exercise in either province that influence to which they consider themselves entitled by reason of their numbers, wealth and culture." The scheme met Bengali sentiment on that point. But the triumph of the agitators against the " partition " was not unmixed. Bengali pride had to recon- cile itself to the loss of prestige consequent on the withdrawal of the supreme Government from Calcutta, and to the recognition of Dacca, the old Mahommedan capital of Eastern Bengal, as the second capital of the reunited province. The last provision, it was hoped, would tend to reconcile the Mahommedans of
Eastern Bengal to the changes. But they and their coreligionists in other parts of India regarded the revision of the " partition " as a Hindu victory and a blow to their community. The suspicion and resentment thus engendered augmented the unrest which events in Europe were exciting among them. Such was the scheme and its objects. In the months following the Delhi durbar it ran the gauntlet of criticism in England and in India. Strong objection was taken by its critics to the undoing of the " partition/' " the settled fact " which Lord Morley had refused to disturb. Objections equally strong were taken to the removal of the Government of India from direct contact with the largest and most powerful European community in India and the segregation of its officials from the outside world. The authority of Parliament, it was also said, had been flouted. The King's ministers had suffered a royal announcement to be made of changes of the highest moment before Parliament was allowed to discuss them. There was force in the contention. Parliament was confronted with a fait accompli, and the circumstances were such as to prevent it from enforcing, if it wished, the responsibility of ministers. Time alone will test the wisdom of these changes, autocratically conceived and dramatically carried out. The building of the new capital has been thrown back by the war, and the cost will largely exceed the estimated sum of four millions sterling. New Delhi, it is urged by opponents of the scheme, will be merely the cold-weather headquarters of an official hierarchy, an imposing mass of buildings untenanted for climatic reasons during eight months of the year; while the Government of India, rotating between it and Simla, will live perpetually in a bureaucratic atmosphere. On the other hand the drawbacks of Calcutta were many, and recent constitutional changes have emphasized the desirability of removing the supreme Government from immediate contact with the internal administration of Bengal. The presidential Government of reunited Bengal is an undoubted success, the bitterness of feeling engendered by the " partition" has disappeared, and the interests of the Mahommedan population of the Eastern districts receive a just measure of attention from the local government. The province of Bihar and Orissa is the weak feature of the scheme. The artificial union of two blocks of territory lying geographically apart and without linguistic or racial affinities can never be a convenient administrative unit, and may eventually give place to a better arrangement.
Lord Hardinge's Internal Administration. The period from the conclusion of the royal visit to the outbreak of the World War was one of administrative progress and constitutional advance, not however without incidents and movements of serious import. The finances were satisfactory. The reformed Legislative Councils were working well.- The relations of the non-official members with the Government were cordial and helpful. Much attention was given in the provincial Councils, as also in the Imperial Legislative Council, to matters of education, public health and local self-government, and interest was stimulated by the considerable grants for these purposes which the central Government was able to make from imperial revenues to local governments. In closing the budget debate in his Council in March 1912, Lord Hardinge denned the duty of his Government, as he conceived it, to be " to turn all our energies to the uplifting of our people. Only by the spread of knowledge and by the resolute struggle against disease and death can India rise among the nations." The beginning of a sustained advance in popular education was made at the Delhi coronation durbar, at which a recurring grant of 50 lakhs (333,000) to local governments for the purpose was announced. (Here and elsewhere the conversion of rupees into sterling has been made on the basis of Rs. 15 = i. See note under Finance below.) This was followed in succeeding years by larger grants. From 1911 to 1915 non-recurring grants amounting to 35 millions sterling and recurring grants of 826,000 were made to the provinces. The total annual expenditure on education rose during the period by nearly 3 millions sterling, and the number of boys and girls at school or college by one million and a half. This expansion was numerically greatest in the primary schools. A wide educational policy was laid down, embracing the universities and
