Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 171, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1916 — India's City of Discontent [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

India's City of Discontent

T HE query on tne lips of tnose who know India is whether , the new viceroy. Lord Chelmsford, will be able to soothe the “City of Discord.” This is Lahore, writes Charles M. Pepper in-the Washington Star. There are plenty of other discontented and dissatisfied sections of India, but it is the unspoken belief that whoever can keep Lahore quiet can tranquillize the rest of India. Lahore is well to the north. It is the capital and commercial center of the fertile Punjab. This is known as the five-river region, because of the Important streams which water it. Lahore itself is on the River Ravi. The Punjab, by means of its rivers, has been enabled to develop a very complete system of irrigation canals. Its wheat crop helps to feed England and to stabilize prices of food in the United Kingdom. It also has abundant crops of corn, oil seeds, cotton, cane and rice. It is the most varied and productive agricultural region of India.

Lahore Is the gateway of northern India. The railway runs to Rawalpindi and beyond to Peshawar, at the mouth of the Kabul pass into Afghanistan. ’ Lahore also is considered the gateway to and from Kashmir. A splendid highway runs from Rawalpindi to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir. The mall coaches and the tongas, or native buggies, and the bullock carts once monopolized this road, but the automobiles now have crowded them out, although there is still some traffic by means of the bullocks.

There is also another road from Lahore to Srinagar, more direct but less convenient and consequently less traveled. The commerce of northern India which reaches Lahore flows out through the port of Karachi, on the Arabian sea. There is through railway communication. The railways also keep Lahore In direct communication with Bombay and Calcutta, so that ns the city of discontent it is in touch with the dissatisfied elements in all parts of India. The City Itself is an Industrial center. There are cotton and flour mills, potteries, metal-working and numerous minor industrial activities. There are also the hand looms, since the mills have not yet entirely displaced this ancient form of Hindu weaving.

Punjab Museum Is Interesting. The Punjab museum, for those who wish to know something of the industrial life, is the most Interesting place in Punjab. The Buddhist sculptures from Peshawar axe very striking. There are carpets and rugs and glazed tiles, mosaics, pottery and examples of exquisite metal-working, along with screens and doors which illustrate the delicacy of the lacquer wood carving. There are also the old doors of the sixteenth century, in themselves an interesting exhibit. Then there are numerous drawings and reproductions by art students. The most interesting exhibits, however, are the throngs of native visitors, whose comments are very characteristic. A local munchi, or teacher, who showed me through the museum, Interpreted some remarks of one of the Punajabese visitors as expressive of his satisfaction |hat there was “nothing English” in the museum. There is, however, a great deal that is English in Lahore. Out Shalimar gardens way are numerous English bungalows, and also the English college in the Lawrence gardens, which is at once a tribute to British educational policy and a monument to the progressive Englishmen who have not been afraid to teach the natives fest that should increase their discontent. The group of college buildings are not out of harmony with their environment.

The government buildings, while comfortable, are not imposing. They are in the midst of shaded grounds and their graceful towers and arcade balconies are in keeping with the surroundings. The Shalimar gardens usually are described in the tourist guide books as hanging gardens. They lie- beyond a half-rained Moslem village. There are three terraces, or grassy platforms, almost distressing in their mathemat-

leal regularity, with squires and rectangles and with shallow lakes and fountains. Their shady walks have not been spoiled by overmuch landscape gardening, as is the tendency in India, where usually the ruling race seeks to add a few layers of ornamentation to the architectural traditions of the ruled race.

Tomb of Jehangir. * Jehanglr’s tomb is one of the chief historic attractions of Lahore. The mausoleum is on the bank of the Ravi river, which is now crossed by a flnei bridge Instead of the bridge of boats of old. There are four towers at the corners of the tomb. The mosaics and the marble lacquer work are the most beautiful features of the mausoleum. There is an inscription in the Urdu vernacular, reciting that it is the burial place of "Jehangir, the conqueror of the world.”

Jehanglr’s conquests were many and thorough, and fill a great space in the history of the Mohammedan invasion of India. But the world was larger than Jehangir and his contemporaries knew, and there was even more to India itself than they realized. The world of India, which he conquered, did not remain vanquished, and much of It fell away from his successors. Nevertheless, the Mohammedan preponderance continued and the domes and minarets of the mosques still dwarf the temples of the Jains and other Hindu sects.

Anarkali’s tomb is also one of the sights of Lahore. He was known as “the Lion of Lahore.” The dome building in which is held the yellow marble coffin that contains Anarkali’s remains is now occupied as a govern-* ment office without detracting any from the greatness of “the Lion of Lahore.”

The English section of Lahore Is a fine and spacious Anglo-Indian town, with an abundance of shade trees, wooded arcades and palms. The real Lahore, the actual city of discontent, is something very different. Many of the streets are as narrow as alleys, with the balconies and roofs elbowing one another. In these alleyways are some unusually fine examples of clay and wood earring, and of lattice andlacquer work. It is here that the native life purls atf<Lseethes, and resents Interference. Yet there are some concessions from the native customs. A Hindu “barker” in European clothes and with the helmet hat of the Englishman, crying the attractions of a sideshow, was one of these which I noted. Another was a group of Mohammedans playing cards with English cards. Nor was it w hist that they were playing, either. Yet next to them was seated a naked fakir, or priest, discoursing to a group of devout disciples—a real picture of native life. The Moslem preponderance, historically, in Lahore, and possibly numerically, raises a question why it should be the city of discontent, since the Mohammedans are mostly loyal and are the mainstay. of z British rule in India. But there is such a mixture of native races and religions in Lahore that no sect has any real preponderance. Apparently, discontent gravitates there because of the medley.

PROCESSION OF STATE ELEPHANTS