Indian officialdom. The Anglo-Indians opposed every one of these measures. They ridiculed the idea of introducing any measure of local self-government in India, and predicted that that must be the beginning of the end. They called the measure rash and ill-advised and impracticable. The natives were incapable of self-government, they said. Their religious and social differences made it impossible. Officialdom was equally opposed to the filling of any posts in government service by open competition. This would bring in the “ Babu,” and the “ Babu ” they had now begun to hate and look down upon. The “ Babu ” was a “ low-caste hybrid,” who wrote bad English and talked of liberty and equality, who lacked in qualities of docility and submissiveness, which had so far characterised persons appointed by selection. This interfered materially with the prestige of the Lord of the District, as people could now get “ high ” appointments under the Government independently of him. Why should the people respect him any more? His was a government by prestige, and measures like these of Lord Ripon would destroy it. So prophesied the heaven-born “ white Brahmins.” But the worst offence of Lord Ripon was the “ Ilbert Bill,” [1] which aimed at placing the European and the Indian on an equal footing in the eyes of the law, and would remove the disabilities of the Indian Magistrate in the matter of the trial of the white men. “ Shall we be judged by the Nigger? ” “ shall he send us to jail? ” “ shall
- ↑ Mr. Ilbert was the Law member of the Council of the Governor General and the bill came to be named after him.
