(circumnavigating the world on bicycles from 15 October 1923
to 18 March 1928)
There is a saying current about Multan ……Dust, heat, beggars
and cemeteries are the four specialities of Multan.
……….mountainous territory of British Baluchistan. It is
bounded on the north by Afghanistan and by Persia on the west. The whole
country is rocky and barren as if condemned to eternal sterility. The mountains
in the district provide unique fastnesses to the tribes of dacoits and
marauders who infest them with impunity. With insecurity of life and property,
it is not surprising that this district is economically poor and otherwise
backward. Pax Britannica is almost unknown beyond a radius of 20 miles from
Quetta, the capital. Civilization has scarcely encroached upon this region. Law
is honoured more in breach than in obedience. The sturdy race in this territory
is a race of born-fighters. Accustomed to fight for life at every moment of
their existence, the law of survival of the fittest seems to have asserted
itself here completely…….We had three enemies to contend within the course of
our travel through Baluchistan – mountains, marauders, and intense cold.
……….every inspection bungalow throughout the wild
Baluchistan has some tale of its own to tell. Almost all of them were scenes of
murder some time or the other. Inspection bungalows furnished little security
against the ferocity of the Baluchi dacoits….. Cattle-lifting – horses included
– was an art in which the Baluchi thief, through continuous practice, had
acquired singular perfection. Horse stables, therefore, were a standing
invitation to the Baluchi brigand to try his technique and passing a night in
this stable was simply inviting otherwise avoidable trouble.
Flesh and blood indeed seems very cheap in this
semi-barbarous region of Baluchistan. Curious customs and beliefs that cause us
to shudder prevail in this country. Even the sacred institution of marriage is
reduced to a form of trafficking in women. The average price of a bride varies
from Rs 500 to Rs 2000, according to the beauty of the bride. Divorce is easy
and cheap, if not free. The husband who feels ‘fed up’ with his wife has only
to leave her again at her father’s place. Nor does her father look upon this as
a necessary evil. The divorce is a source of income to him. The divorced
daughter is put up for auction. The suitor who bids the highest gets the girl.
When he in his turn finds that the charm of novelty has vanished, he divorces
her; once again the poor wife is auctioned. Each additional divorce enhances
the price of the poor creature.
The ties of filial affection are scarcely visible here. Just
as the father without compunction auctions the daughter, so is the son anxious
to hear about the death of his father. No sooner his ‘old man’ dies than the
son, the heir and legal representative , inherits everything, including his
mother.
At Kachhar we find the Pathans of the Kachhar tribes who are
a ferocious race with devilish features. Some of these Kachhar tribes are
religious fanatics. They believe in the attainment of heaven through the murder
of kafirs or infidels, all persons not professing their faith are considered
infidels……..
…..Ziarat, a summer resort for well-to-do and nothing-to-do
inhabitants of Quetta.
……mode of life in Baluchistan…..a man according to the
Mohammedan law is entitled to marry four wives, but many of the important
preliminaries of the marriage are gone through by proxy…….the bridegroom…..a
pawn in the game. The bridegroom is neither consulted in the choice of the
bride nor as a rule does he see his bride before the betrothal ceremony…….the
father of the bride is always careful to receive half the portion of the
selling price of the bride strictly in advance before the betrothal. After the
ceremony, the bridegroom is permitted to visit his fiancée; as a rule he does
not wait for his marriage for the enjoyment of marital privileges. It is a
peculiar custom in these regions and is not regarded as immorality. Only on
payment of the full price, or whatever you may choose to call it, is the date
for the marriage fixed……. In the event of the death of the bride before the
marriage or nikah, half the price paid is refunded to the bridegroom.
The main tribes in Baluchistan are Kakars, Khetrans, Musa
Khels, Dumars, Tarins, Saiyads, and Lunis. The masses live in villages of usual
Pathan style – mud houses piled up in clusters without the remotest thought to
plans and architectural designs. There is prevalent amongst the masses another
curious custom relating to hospitality, which fortunately now is fast
disappearing. The members of the Sazar Khels, Zakhphels, Dumars, and Pachis
tribes consider it an obligation of hospitality to permit a grown-up girl of
the family to associate with their guests for the satisfaction of his grosser
self. The pernicious conservatism in this respect is so deep-rooted that in the
absence of a suitable girl or woman in the family the host procures a girl from
his relatives or friends by way of a loan……we may mention here that from the
information we derived from various sources we found this crude notion of
hospitality was confined to a few tribes only, though many of them have now
begun to realize the perverted mentality underlying this custom………….the way in
which …..food is prepared is equally remarkable. There is a proverb amongst the
Persians something to the effect that it would be wise for a man not to see the
place where his food is cooked……We had a peep at the cuisine of a host of
ours………..usual procedure is to kindle a fire using the dried excreta of goats
and other animals. The dough is then spread out on a hot stone and without much
precaution the stone is shoved into the fire; thus particles of the excretion
stick to the bread …..
Quetta is in many respects a pleasant city. Situated at an
altitude of 5,500 ft above the sea level, it has a salubrious climate except
perhaps in winter, when the barometer often registers a fall below the freezing
point………it has a pleasant summer and a picturesque springtime. The winter is at
times exceptionally severe.
Generally the roads in Persia are as safe as roads in any country
in the West.
The Persians are a very polite nation and very well known
for their hospitality………The Persians have a high opinion about the Parsi
community in India. They imagine that every Parsi who comes to Persia comes for
floating a company or undertaking some other commercial enterprise…….. women in
Persia very seldom move out without their purdah or veil. This dates back to
the times of lawlessness and disorder once prevalent in Persia, when men
carried both their lives and their wives in hand. Nobody’s pretty sister or
wife was ever safe from the rapacious attention of the highway marauder or what
was as bad as that being, the licentious officials of the town. Though the
causes that led to the adoption of the purdah system have largely disappeared,
the purdah still remains. With certain orthodox Persians the system of purdah
is so rigidly observed that none, save the husband, is permitted to lift the
veil off the face of the woman.
…..Baghdad…..A large number of Hindus and Mohammedans are
seen here engaged in government or railway services though now a days the
Indian is ousted and way made for the local inhabitants.
Cairo, the Egyptian metropolis was humming with throng and
activities. The honk of the cars, the hum of the tramcars, the creeking of the
cart wheels, the none too polite language of the hack-victoria driver when he
finds his progress impeded, the brawls at toddy shops – all vest Cairo with a
marked resemblance to Bombay.
Our journey from Brindisi to Naples………it totally destroyed
the high opinion we held about European countries in general. The roads were
bad, houses awful and the people dirty. Little urchins ran about streets as if
they were nobody’s children. They wore tattered clothes that bore blots and
patches of grease, dirt, soot, mud and everything, and wherefrom a stench of
the most unbearable type ensued. No doubt the poverty of the Italian peasants
is one reason for the wretched state of existence and social backwardness they
are found in. But every allowance being made for economic backwardness one
feels a conclusion would hardly be inevitable that the people of Southern Italy
as a rule prefer to wear unclean attires to decent ones….. The hotels [in
Italy] were little better than the serais of Persia. Both harboured teeming
colonies of all imaginable types of vermin; both were receptacles for filth,
ire, refuse and all that nobody in the town seemed to need.
The less we refer to the costumes of the Southern Italian
peasants the better for your appetite. …..the necktie, which always seemed to
have served more than one owner and which invariably was the dirtiest piece in
their dirty attire…….The manners of the Italian peasant are none too winning.
At times while we were seated at our meals, some rustic would occupy a chair at
the same table, pushing our chairs aside without the least courtesy of politely
asking us to make room for him. Some other rustic, not content with such rude
intrusion, would seek to converse with us – not politely asking permission to
introduce himself, but rudely knocking the toes of his feet against ours. Then
he would ask us from what country we came and without waiting for a reply ask
us if we were Americans or Belgians, Germans, Austrians, or inhabitants of any
country which found a place within his limited geography……We were much pestered
by the idly curious people.
When we used to talk French we were mistaken for the
Frenchmen. When we corrected the error saying we came from India, we could
perceive a vacant gaze on their faces. Evidently the peasant of Italy does not
know where India is or whether India is an island or a lake or a small town or
a continent!
The houses tenanted by such a people could not be very
attractive. The streets were narrow, dirty and ill-drained. The rows of houses
were not regular, some houses starting forward, others receding backward, some
tottering, some leaning against a neighbourhood tenement as if for support,
some damaged, many lacking repairs and all dirt. Many streets were nothing
short of a maze of dirty squalid buildings, with unwholesome smell steaming
from the surface, swarming with half-nude urchins and ‘whole worlds of dirty
people.’
On the first day of our journey from Brindisi we covered 60
miles. There was not a signboard or a milestone to tell us the distance.
…..with the roads getting worse and worse.
There is a proverb ‘see Naples and die.’ We have seen Naples
and we do not understand what the proverb means. There is not much to be seen
in the city itself though the environments are interesting, historically.
As George-Stillman Hillard says, ‘By day the Coliseum is an
impressive fact; by night it is a stately vision. By day it is a lifeless form;
by night a vital thought.’
‘The Swiss people,’ says an author, ‘are the Dutch of the
mountains, the same cold, unimaginative, money-seeking, yet vigorous,
determined, energetic people.’ While we came across many with a canine
intelligence, always eager to knock a little dough out of the tourist, on the
whole they were more cleanly, mannerly and kind than the Italians. The Swiss
people follow mainly agricultural vocations and still retain their rustic
simplicity.
The rude attire of the villagers and the poverty-striken
appearance of the towns bore testimony to Austria’s departed prosperity.
Austria had evidently not recovered from the setback she received in the World
War and one doesn’t know how long it will take her to attain to her pre-war
eminence…..Lax morality is perhaps but a necessary concomitant of dire poverty.
Due to stark poverty, one finds a number of women and girls in streets, soliciting
at times with a persistence that rouses at once our pity and anger. Vienna with
a population of 2000,000 people ranks fourth in the list of largest cities in
the continent. Vienna has all the attractions that go with the large cities…….
Hungary is less densely populated than Austria, as the
comparatively larger distance between the villages indicates. The cultivation
of the land is rude and the population poor.
Various writers have spoken of Holland discouragingly.
Phillip II defined it as ‘the country nearest to hell.’ But out of that
uninhabitable tract, the patience and perseverance of the Hollanders created a
beautiful country, though artificial. Nature has denied to this land most of
her blessings. Holland had miles of sand and clay and barren soil. The Hollanders
imported fertile soil and made her plains smile with abundant harvest. Holland
was denied iron and coal; Hollanders imported these and constructed a beautiful
country. The unfavourable position of the country costs her very much. A huge
army of engineers and labourers continually stand sentinel over the dikes to
see that no breach is made by the enemy……
…..London is not the capital of England alone; it is the
most important city in the world, with perhaps a rival only in New York…….display
of wealth and display of poverty, display of the brilliance side by side with
display of drabness. Wherever we turned out gaze we saw men, women and children……
Here west is mingled with the east, falsifying Kipling’s prophecy ‘East is East
and West is West. And never the twain shall meet.’ There is the Englishman who
is all silk and starch; the factory operative all black and grease; the
Chinaman with his peering almond eyes; the Japanese with his high cheek bones;
the Lascer with his weather-beaten face; the Arab in long robes; the Hindu
Westernized but Easterner; the Persian beautiful and white; the African with
curly hair and white teeth; Princes, Dukes, Earls, Counts, Lords and Knights;
Chinese coffee houses, Jewish synagogues; tourists chatting; foreigners
enjoying; endless miles of buses, taxis, Rolls Royces and Fords, headlamp to
tail-lamp, tail-lamp to head-lamp, one undending line…….streets and miles of
streets
In England one can be sure of anything but the weather. One does
not know when the brief spell of bright weather will yield place to rains. In fact
the whimsical weather is given first preference in all dialogues.
Iowa’s Lake District stands favourably in comparison with
lake districts of Switzerland and England. In some districts there are
thousands of lakes many of which make a landscape off enchanting beauty at all
hours of the day. Sunsets in these regions are glorious. They reveal nature in
one of her most sublime and dazzling aspects, but alas, with so few of God’s
creatures to admire her.
……..we were promenading about some unfrequented quarter of
the ship watching the billows as one bigger than the rest swept across the
deck, we found several Japanese girls taking their bath in the open with not an
inch of clothing. What was more, on seeing us as they exhibited neither
discernment nor surprise, regarding us with total indifference. In fact, they
stood enjoying their bath. Experience in Japan later on, showed us that the Japanese
regards his bath as a function to be performed open to the public gaze and
whether there be crowds or none, it does not make material difference to him.
Japan like China is a topsey-turvy land, at least as the
foreigner sees it. The Japanese appear to do things in an upside-down manner.
Babies are carried slung across the back and not in front in arms as we do; the
baby is considered a year old on the day it is born, so that the child born on
the last day of the year is reckoned two years old, the next day; their books
are read commencing at the back in lines running vertical; footnotes are placed
at the top and not at the bottom of the page; they build the roofs of the house
first and then construct the sides; they shudder at the immodesty of the scanty
dress of Miss America, but enjoy a mixed bathing with men without clothes in
the same hot spring; their theatres are without seats; their drawing rooms are
without chairs; their dining rooms without forks, spoons, table cloths and
tumblers; belching while dining is height of good manners; the houses have
paper walls; they call bed, and rest their head on a pillow of wood; their
cherries have no stones; oranges no pips, and the bells have no tongues; their
screws work in reverse way, their locks open the reverse way and their ships
are beached stern foremost; women blacken their teeth instead of whitening them;
the babies are solemn like men; and the men are like babies, simple. The
Japanese are born grown-up and remain children all their lives; their cab-men
are cab-horses too; and common horses are quite uncommon; the Japanese baby
never washes with soap and never gets kisses; Japanese have buttons three
inches long; but no button-holes; their domestic servants are honoured, and
merchants are regarded as outcasts; on entering your room you take off your
boots and not your hat; and if it is hot, your host removes the front of the
house for your benefit; the Japanese sells his goods to pay his debts as all
debts must be paid of before New Year Day so that he can start contracting
debts afresh; some of their temples are more famous for the beautiful groves of
cherry-trees than their Gods. The Japanese wife gives precedence to her
husband; it is place aux homes for place aux dames in Japan; the
Japanese on receiving a guest bows several times instead of one; and the call
of a visitor extends anything from 5 to 10 hours.
The love of flowers is the most predominating sentiment in
the Japanese race.
Though the Japanese house is scantily furnished it
invariably bears evidence of tender loving care bestowed upon it.
But ‘Japan is a man’s country where women are regarded as
conveniences.’ In this respect Japan is antipodes of America which is a woman’s
country where men are regarded as conveniences either carrying women’s poodles
or furnishing defendants in divorce suits. But in Japan the woman is an
obedient slave. Ever since she was tiny mite playing shuttlecock with her next
brother-baby slung across her back, she is taught obedience to father while a
child, obedience to husband while a wife and obedience to a grown-up son while
a mother.
The Japanese trader has unfortunately an evil repute. Deception
is his monopoly mainly, though the rickshaw boy has made encroachments upon it.………..His
vocation has endowed him with a sturdy physique. No ordinary man can draw a
rickshaw for miles like a horse and yet bear a smile on his face at the end of
the journey.
He does not take his religion very seriously. Often Japanese
is both a Shintoist and a Buddhist. Buddhism has found favour in Japan as it
did not preach any dogma conflicting with any principle of the Shinto religion.
It is supplementary in character. The gods are common; the temples of both
faiths are often found side by side and often managed by the same priests. There
are very few pure Shintoists or pure Buddhists in Japan…….Broadly speaking,
writes an author ‘the peasantry are rather Shintoist than Buddhist, the Samurai
and town people rather Buddhist than Shintoist in their faith; while the
literature are mostly indifferentists.’
The Koreans though in such proximity of China and Japan do
not resemble either the Chinese or the Japanese in their attire or mode of life…The
Koreans fume and fret at Japanese domination, not without good cause.
Strange as it may seem, the inhabitants of the Hermit
Kingdom as a rule are exceedingly courteous to foreigners though their land has
been brought into contact with the outside world in very recent times…..Koreans
are a gay people when they are out to enjoy life, and if the thermometer
indicated 7 degrees below the freezing point, to them it mattered little……The
Koreans are courteous and realize the language difficulty of the foreigners,
hence they are always eager to learn from gestures and facial expressions of
their guests of honour what they desire to convey……the unfailing courtesy of
the Koreans manifest itself towards the foreigner in many ways…….the average
Korean is habituated to talk loudly. Talking loudly is height of good manners
in Korea; Koreans have good lungs………a trait of the Korean character, which
strikes even a casual observer, and that is filial devotion……….most curious in
Korea is perhaps an incomprehensible tradition that sons of the noble families
or the Yangban as they are called must not work for livelihood. A nobleman may
beg, but working, bah, that would be below his dignity………..we felt sorry for leaving
a quaint nation behind us, which displayed, in spite of all its quaintness, an
innate good nature.
…….Manchus differ physignomically much from the Chinese of
the south, being also taller and better built than the people whom they
subjugated.
……some of the natives take pride in partaking of a special
dish. This consists of little mice dipped alive in honey and eaten while yet life
is not extinct from the poor creatures. If Japanese eat live fish, it is no surprise
the Chinaman should go one better and take a delight in devouring live mice.
Though Manchuria passes off usually as a limb of mighty
China, in fact it is but a separate country with a race of people essentially
different from the Chinaman of the south.
….The blazing sun began scorching even our sheltered heads.
Village after village were passed. We could not procure food anywhere. The superstitious
Chinamen regarded us with considerable suspicion. Though often the villager had
enough and to spare and though we exhibited our willingness to pay cash for
whatever we took, we were denied any help or food. The ‘Foreign Devil’ is not a
harmonious figure in the Chinese landscape…….Often we rested at places which
reminded us of the Persian caravansrai. It would be difficult not to assign
them a place below that of the Persian inns. White lice and mosquitoes were in
abundance. At every halt quite a colony of the former would creep into our
packages and would venture out in the heat of the sun and overrun our bodies……….The
further southward we went, we encountered increasing resistance from the natives.
Foreigners are evidently disliked by every Chinaman ……….The conflicting news of
strifes and warfare had instilled in them a fear for everything that was not
Chinese. At times we were mistaken for robbers.
Most of the railway stations along this route have been
built by Germans. In fact, wherever roads have been built by them they are found
to be in much better condition than those built by the British. The latter
always degenerate into mule tracks.
In many places in China, we were mistaken on account of our
clean shaven faces for Russians……….We turned to villagers for food, but they
would have nothing to do with us as we were mistaken for Russians.
…….Shanghai …….The city has a population of over a million
and a half and is composed of International Settlement, French Town and the
Chinese City. Wherever the tourist goes, his eyes rest upon a serging mass of
humanity that flows into tortuous and sticky streets or lies nestling in narrow
dingy lanes, like caterpillars. Everywhere the vast mass of humanity seems to
be moving, pale-faced, bare-breasted, eager, pressing, heedless of everything
else save their own little affairs, evidently taking a grim part in the
struggle for existence ……..The delicacies which the shopkeepers expose with pride
and by way of advertisement, consists among other things, of varnished ducks,
dogs with skins flayed, lacquered rats, decayed eggs and decomposing fruits.
Hygiene does not seem to have made much progress even in a centre of civilization,
like Shanghai……….There is observable in the Chinese quarter of Shanghai a
civilisation quite different from that observable elsewhere, degenerating at
times into monotony. As one moves from street to street, he sees the same
shops, same sellers, same bloodless faces, same eager looks, same dilapidated
houses, same temples and same goods. One section of the city is but a faithful
duplication of the other.
There are many dialects in China and a Chinese of the north
is as much at sea in southern China as any Englishman or Tartar.
Generally speaking it is futile to expect hospitality in
China. But all deserts have their oasis. It seems absence of hospitality is
more attributable to their superstition, ignorance, and suspicion of the
foreigners than an innately bad human nature. There would seem some
justification for the Chinamen taking to the foreigner with a strong aversion. In
fairness to the Chinamen it should be acknowledged he never was fairly treated
by the foreigner and he is a little to blame if impelled by an instinct of
self-preservation, he displays hostility towards those whom he looks upon as
his born enemies.
….we had a duck cooked. This was not the type of varnished
duck left hanging for sale, in dirt and filth at a Chinese stall; but live duck
slaughtered for the occasion.
The Chinese are industrious, gentle and pleasant people,
with a philosophy of life very different from that of the West. …….is a curious
mixture of child-like simplicity and cunning; of fetishes and wisdom; of
superstition and commonsense……..In China everything seems topsy-turvy though
the Chinese have good reasons for behaving in what seems to us an eccentric
manner. You find Chinamen putting on skirts and women wearing trousers; men
carry umbrellas but women carry walking-sticks; men fly kites and children just
look on; the pupil says his lessons with his back turned towards the master,
and not his face; it is height of bad manners to take off one’s cap in the
presence of superiors or even to wear spectacles; the years are reckoned not
backwards and forwards from Christian era, but with every emperor’s reign they
are computed……..the Chinaman writes from bottom to top and from right to left;
his novels run into scores of volumes; his alphabet has 40,000 letters or
pictures which he paints with a brush; his theatres are least artistic; his
dramas seem to be without beginning or end, lasting over a year at times; he eats
with chopsticks; his delicacies are our emetics; men must be served first and
not ladies; he shakes his own hands when he meets you and not yours; the place
of honour at the dining table is on the left; his boats are towed with horses;
but his field wheel-barrows may have sails; coffin is the commonest article of
domestic furniture and his greatest ambition is to be buried in a ‘swell’
coffin; though monogamy is the rule, there is no shame in taking as many
additional concubines as he can support; husband and wife will not sit at the
same table nor can the wife be audacious enough to hang her clothes on her
husband’s peg; boys of seven will be served with food separately from their sisters
and women will not be reckoned often in counting the members of the family; the
Chinaman takes delight in extremely long nails, and women, till recently, were
made small-footed; the Chinaman carries a visiting card nine inches long; he has
a ‘milk’ name, a ‘school’ name, a ‘trade’ name and a ‘degree’ name; anyone can
contract a debt on the guarantee of a son; for the grandson is liable to pay
his grandfather’s debts; until recently the Chinese warring armies used to stop
fighting on all holidays; if it rained hard, fighting might be carried on, the
soldiers holding umbrella in one hand; at night there would be no fighting………..his
mourning colour is white and not black; he wails near the coffin for seven days
and removes the corpse not on hygienic grounds, but on a lucky day, at the
dictation of an augur; beggars like trades people have powerful guilds;
Chinaman’s music is ear-splitting, the actors like barbers are regarded as
social outcasts………..the honour conferred by an emperor does not descend to a
Chinaman’s descendants, but ascends to as many dead ancestors as the Imperial
will may dictate; the Chinaman will create noise when an eclipse occurs beating
a drum to frighten away the ‘Heavenly dog’ from swallowing up the moon…….The
houses of the masses are poorly built and present little idea of comfort. Usually
these are mat-shed houses made of coarse woven or plaited bamboo leaves, shoved
upon bamboo framework and secured rudely by fibre……… The rooms are often
over-heated and always under-ventilated. There is usually a courtyard at the
entrance of which we find painted monstrosities of wood or stone, designed to
frighten away evil spirits. But consistently with the sense of contrariness,
these horrid figures are regarded by the Chinaman as ornaments…… Wall
decorations are conspicuous by their absence. Usually there is a courtyard attached
to a house, but unlike the Japanese courtyard it may contain a dunghill instead
of a pretty little garden. The house of upper classes of mandarins or wealthy
Manchus contain numerous articles of luxury and are well-built where even a
Westerner may feel quite comfortable……… sampan dwellers. China has an immense
floating population, literally floating. The Yangtze, the Hoang-ho, the Canton
River and many others hold millions of junks and sampans, very inconvenient
little crafts, in which men and women lie huddled up in intimate proximity……..On
these little sampans births, death, marriages and all important domestic events
take place……. Their lot is miserable, but still they seem to be cheery and
contented, and not unoften quite merry.
The Chinese have very curious social customs……..Tight-fitting
clothes, which reveal the outlines of the body, are considered indecorous. The higher
classes of women cover their heads with beautiful headgears; the poorer ones go
bareheaded……. The wife is a household drudge, under the iron-rule of the
mother-in-law. Her inferior status is symbolized by her prostration at her
husband’s feet at the time of her marriage. The husband is far above the wife
to eat together with her……..
Foot-binding though gradually dying is yet in evidence. As a
rule the Chinaman takes to babies kindly, but at places a baby-tower is seen,
where the unwanted baby girls are left to exposure to die. A rude, windowless
and roofless structure is seen in some solitary part, with an aperture in a wall
some five to six feet above the ground. Here the unfortunate offspring is
placed. The next comer pushes the infant into the tower – the fall probably
completing the work if not done by the exposure and starvation – and places his
child there. This system has the redeeming feature of no parent being compelled
to kill his own child……..
The most notorious is the Beggar’s Guild. This guild levies
a rate upon every shopkeeper. The rate duly paid, no beggar will approach the
shop. Any inclination on the part of the trader to resist the demand of the
guild would be instantly visited with punishment. Horribly disfigured and diseased
beggars would be let loose upon him, who will soon pester him, into submission.
…………a Chinaman has no religion, three hold the field. Confucianism is really
nothing more than a theory of applied ethics. Taoism is more philosophy than
religion; but there is Buddhism with all its elaborate paraphernalia and four
million gods. …..There are numerous joss houses, or small idol temples to which
the devotee turns for prayer or relief from his worries. The devotee rings
gongs and bells, and in answer a priest comes with a few papyrus rolls of which
the devotee selects one at random. This roll contains the answer to the devotee’s
petition to his god; the answer may be uncertain, equivocal or irrelevant. If the
devotee is not satisfied with the divine reply, he pays another coin and tries
his luck again, until either his purse is exhausted or he gets a reply he likes
to have.
……when we crossed over into Indo-China we did not feel very
sorry for having finished with China and the Chinese. In no country in the
world we were pestered so much or ill treated to such an extent as in China. Yet
we firmly believe this is more due to ignorance, illiteracy and superstition than
innate evil nature; that given the light of knowledge and culture, the Chinaman
may prove as good as any other human being in the world.
The rude savage Arab has a better ethical code than what
prevails in Indo-China, a land over which the tri-coloured flag of France
flies, and where liberty, equality and fraternity, mean just a regime of sham
liberty, sham equality, and sham fraternity……….Indians in Indo-China are made
to labour under humiliating disabilities the like of which no civilized government
seeks to impose even upon a conquered race. The immigration rules are designed
with a devilish ingenuity to keep Indo-China free from Indian and Chinese
immigrants. Directly the Indian enters the Saigon port, his passport is
confiscated and he is marched into a lock-up. If he can furnish a security,
well and good. Otherwise detention is inevitable. Then follows the terrible
ordeal of filling up ‘forms’ wherein the Indian immigrant is subjected to a
searching cross-examination. The immigrant, no matter what his social status
and position are, is asked to furnish fingerprints of all his fingers. As if
this were not enough a heavy poll tax is levied for the terrible offence the
Indian has committed of having been born an Indian.
In some places in America there are exhibited sign-boards, ‘Japs,
Indians, Chinese, dogs and cats not allowed.’
………..entered Cambodia. When we arrived at Phnom Penh we found
we had once gain to put up with humiliating Immigration rules. Fingerprints had
to be given again.
In the jungles of Siam you do not find men to appreciate an
undertaking like ours……We could not deliver lectures; there did not seem enough
intelligent men worth talking to.
The Burmese as a race are essentially different from any of
the Indian communities, showing nearer resemblance to the Chinese with the
prominent flat physiognomy. Around 85 per cent of the people are Buddhists
though most of them retain primitive beliefs in the Nats or spirits of forests
and mountains. Burma is full of pagodas and monasteries.
………….Naga Hills form a sort of natural boundary between the
state of Manipur and Assam.
……Madras Presidency. The caste system is extremely rigid and
untouchability, in its most inhuman forms is common here……In matters of caste system
they are extremely rigid and orthodox.
The Mysore Palace of the maharaja is the outstanding feature
of this old capital. Silver doors give you entrance to the main building. There
is an armoury in the palace which is particularly interesting……It contains the
sword of Sultan Tipu, and the wag-nakh or tiger’s claws alleged to have been used
by Shivaji.
Posts
