(Following is an excerpt from the speech delivered by Maharaja Of Banaras, Ishwari Prasad Narayan Singh, on 20 July 1888 at the Town Hall of Varanasi)
Democracy is an occidental (western) idea. A Hindu cannot comprehend it as long as he is a Hindu. It is against his religious belief. The divisions of Varna are the basis of his religion. He cannot see without distress a Brahman or Kshtriya serving a Sudra. A Brahman may beg or even may die, yet he will never touch a dish from which a Sudra has partaken food.
When to save themselves from the hands of the Muhammadans the Mahrattas formed a union among themselves, they appointed a Brahman as their Peshwa (leader), Baji Rao. So long as Hindus remain in Hindustan you cannot succeed in extending the democratical ideas.
If there is any defect in our Government, it is only this that our Government is democratical, in as much as it appoints its officials by the result of examinations passed for official posts, independent of the social position of the candidate. For example, we may have a carpenter as Deputy Collector, and a Kalvar Honorary Magistrate.
The Maharajah’s well at Stoke Row, United Kingdom
The Congressmen want a separation of the Executive from the Judicial and technical education. This is a very small affair. Hundreds of proposals like this come before the Government every day, and hundreds of changes which are thought to be an improvement are always being made.
About education – who prevents you? You can teach your sons in your schools to read Milton and Shakespeare, or to draw pictures, or (if the worst comes to the worst) to parch grain. The choice lies with you.
Why do not these Congresswallas go to some Native State and turn it into an administrative model according to their fancies. Babu Nilambar Mukerji has been in Kashmir, and perhaps a brother of the Indian Mirror is still in Jaipur. Why has the Nizam of Hyderabad appointed Colonel Marshal his Secretary, and why has the Begum of Bhopal appointed Colonel Ward her Manager?
Some of the advocates of the Congress bring forward the names of some British officers as being in their favour; but these latter are and cannot but be disappointed Civilians. If a native feels disappointed because he is not made a Judge in the High Court or a Dewan in a Native State, is it any wonder that a British Officer feels disappointed if he be not made a member of the Viceregal Council or a Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, especially when they both think themselves equally fit for the posts aspired to.
