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"^m^ 'r*««*^«< ii^ r^^ J^,/tF»'**'*'*'tSi5 THE ROYAL VISIT TO INDIA 191 1-1912 MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO THE KING-EMPEROR AND THE OUEEN-EMPRESS. Frontispiece. NARRATIVE OF THE VISIT TO INDIA OF THEIR MAJESTIES KING GEORGE V. and QUEEN MARY AND OF THE CORONATION DURBAR HELD AT DELHI 12th DECEMBER lyil BY The Hon. JOHN FORTESCUE MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1912 COPYRIGHT DEDICATED (by gracious permission) TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES ye f-'^-^i '^ i^A ILLUSTRATIONS FACE I'AOE Frontispiece I. The King-Emperor and the Queen-Empress 2. The Oueen and her Ladies .... 85 Fight 104 3. Watching a Spar-and-Pillow 105 4. A Spar-and-Pillow Fight .... 106 5. Watching the Sports on H.M.S. Medina 108 6. The Reception at Bombay .... Delhi 116 7. The King-Emperor's Camp, 8. The Arrival at Selimgarh Bastion 117 Spectators' Mound 9. The Durbar—The Arena and from the Top of the Stand . 10. The Durbar—Distant View of the Royal Pavilion and the Spectators' Mound . H3 11. The Maharaja of Bikaner and Their Imperial Majesties' Pages ..... 147 12. The Shamiana—Delhi Durbar ... 151 13. The King-Emperor's Chobdars ... 152 14. H.H. The Begum of Bhopal leaving the Roya Reception Tent ..... 155 15. The Durbar—The Royal Pavilion 158 ILLUSTRATIONS /I I India. What does this name signify to ninety- nine out of a hundred of us beyond a triangle, coloured red, upon the map of Asia ? We are told that the said triangle measures nineteen hundred miles in length from north to south, and about the same in breadth, at its widest point, from east to west ; and that it contains an area rather larger than that of Europe west of the Vistula. The statement conveys little to us. We accept it as undoubtedly true, and, if we look at a map of India superimposed upon one of Europe on the same scale, we are perhaps a little staggered. But we in our little island are accustomed to reckon by acres, not by thousands of square miles ; and, strive as we may against the tendency, we find ourselves always attempt- ing to apply our own puny standards to things Asiatic. We hear of great rivers, and instinctively recall the Thames at London Bridge, forgetting that a great Indian river in flood would fill the space from Westminster Abbey to the Crystal Palace. We are told of mighty mountains, and commit to memory the bald fact that some of I B THE VASTNESS OF INDIA them soar to twice the height of Mont Blanc ; we are aware, perhaps, that they form a barrier practically impassable by man along the immense northern frontier of India ; possibly we may even realise with awe that they make the vast reservoir of water, in the form of snow, which feeds the gigantic rivers already mentioned. So much we may gather, with moderate intelligence, from our maps. But there is one thing more, the most important thing of all, and of all the most impossible to grasp. This red-coloured triangle contains three hundred and twenty million people, six times the population ot France, thrice the population of the United States, one-fifth, as it is reckoned, of the men, women and children living upon this planet. No one man has ever seen, nor will ever see, the hundredth part of them. No one man has ever seen, nor will ever see, in spite of motor cars and aeroplanes and railways, one hundredth of the eighteen hundred thousand square miles over which they are spread. No one man has ever visited, nor will ever visit, all the cities, living and dead, which they have builded. No one man has ever mastered, nor will ever master, all the languages which they speak. More than this, though for centuries men of mighty and commanding genius strove from time to time to bring the whole of India under their sole sway and sovereignty, not one of them succeeded ; and it was only in the nineteenth century that the task was at last accomplished by the agents THE GREATNESS OF INDIA of an alien Queen, the first ruler in Indian history who looked upon all races in India as her children, the great and good Queen Victoria. We English take this thoughtlessly as a surely it is one of the matter of course ; yet strangest circumstances recorded in history. Here is a country which, while we were sunk in barbarism, had worked out a great civilisation and a very remarkable scheme of social organisa- tion for itself; had produced great engineers, great astronomers, great thinkers, great artists, great poets, great soldiers and great adminis- as it still trators ; and has always abounded, abounds, in men of signal ability and exceptional valour. Could we teach her anything in the matter of commerce ? On the contrary, bills ot exchange have been in use in India for countless thrift of centuries ; and her credit, based on the the peasantry, is stabler than that of any Western race, even than that of the French. Could we, except by keeping the peace—a very important exception — better the social relations of man let us with man ? We may think so ; and yet take the most insoluble of the problems that for centuries has confronted ourselves, the question of the relief of the poor. India has solved it. There is not, nor has ever been, a poor law in India, for there is no need of one. The difficulties which demand a complicated, yet always imperfect and unsatisfactory mechanism of State in the West, are not so much vanquished as quietly and imperceptibly suppressed by the 3 — THE PEOPLE OF INDIA organisation of the village and the caste in the East. Could we offer higher ideals of citizenship, or stronger bonds of civil obligation ? The native of India fulfils far more readily than ourselves the duty v^hich w^e have laid down as owing to a neighbour. He is imperfect, as are all other men, yet he loves, honours and succours his father and mother ; he honours and obeys the King and those that are set in authority under him ; he orders himself lowly and reverently to all his betters ; he learns and labours truly to get his own living ; and he has mastered, better than the Western races, the crowning lesson whatsoever his station is, therewith to be content. It is useless to broach to him in his natural state the theory, with the conclusions which follow upon it, that all men are equal. He knows that they are not, and is content to accept the con- sequences. In time of famine he will lie dying slowly, hard by the bountiful table spread for the British Commissioner, without envy and without complaint. It is not that he knows or cares that the said Commissioner, for all that he eats so well, is killing himself in the effort to save starving men from death. To the Indian it is the order of a higher power that a few shall be full while many shall fast, and he bows him- self before it without a murmur. We call such resignation fatalism. It makes us impatient that men should submit tamely to eternal in- justice. As a younger nation, we—or at any rate some of us—are still confident that we can THE ROMANCE OF INDIA set the whole world right ; and we have accepted the phrase divine discontent to dignify our aspira- tions. But the native of India, untainted by European thought, sees nothing divine in dashing himself against the decree of the Most High. He has the courage to face inexorable fact, and sets little store by this transitory life. Not the more, however, on that account, does he hold himself released from his duty towards his neigh- bour. Every Hindu from the moment of his birth is bound over to good behaviour by his caste, under the terrible penalty of being cut off from communion with it, and thrown upon the world alone, without a friend, without a hearth, without a hope, until he joins the great company of the dead. Lastly, could we offer India any romance of leadership or sovereignty which she enjoyed not before ? On the contrary, she has for centuries possessed, natural leaders and a nobility whose social pre-eminence is recognised throughout the length and breadth of the land, a nobility prouder and with longer and sublimer traditions of chivalry and heroism than any that is to be found between the Atlantic and the Ural Mountains. The pedigree of the Guelphs is one of the grandest among all European families, yet it pales before that of the oldest of the Rajputs. None the less, India has passed under the sway of a nation which is, comparatively speaking, of yesterday, which hails from an insignificant island six thousand miles away in 5 HINDOSTAN AND THE DEKHAN the most distant corner of Europe, and which is as remote from the Asiatic in character, training and environment as can be one race of men from another. The great position which was denied to the Mogul Emperors has been attained by English kings ; and, so far as they are conscious of a ruler at all, the three hundred millions of India acknowledge one ruler only. King George, the grandson of Queen Victoria. How did this come about ? It is worth while to look back very briefly over the history of the past, for only thus can we realise the true significance of His Majesty's visit to India.

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