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resolution was also passed at the Conference calling upon Khilafat organisations to safeguard the lives and the property of Indian Muslims and to render them all material and moral support including the conduct of cases in courts. Feeling ran so high at the Khilafat meeting that when a member referred to Hindus as brethren," there was an outburst from a considerable section of the audience who demanded the withdrawal of the word "brethren" and objected to its application to "Kafirs." On the other side, the working committee of the All-India Hindu Mahasabha, which met at Delhi on the 10th May under the Chairmanship of Raja Narendra Nath has condemned as utterly unwarrantable and unjust the attacks made by certain Muslims upon the procession of Arya Samajists, upon Hindu and Sikh temples and Gurdwaras, and upon unoffending Hindus. This Committee, has also attributed the outbreak in Calcutta to the inflammatory utterances of certain educated Mussalman speakers and publicists.

CHAPTER V.

The Provinces 1925-26.

(The first appendix to this book contains a slight description of the present constitution of India, and those to whom it is unfamiliar will find in that appendix an explanation of such terms as "Transferred," "Reserved" and the like, as well as an outline of present constitutional arrangements in the Provinces.)

The reports of previous years have shown that hitherto the greater part of the time which Provincial Legislatures have devoted to legislation has been taken up by Bills relating to local self-government. This was, perhaps, only natural, because local self-government is a transferred subject, and, of course, there is a vast amount of work to be done with regard to it in India. The year under review saw practically every provincial council still engaged with legislation relating to local self-government and such allied subjects as Primary Education, Rural Police and the like. Thus, the Bengal Council considered a Government Bill, called the Bengal Municipal Bill, 1925, whose object was to consolidate and amend the law relating to Municipalities in Bengal. After a brief discussion, leave to introduce the Bill was refused by the Council. Later in the year, the Bengal Village Self-Government (Amendment) Bill, 1925, was moved by a non-official member. This Bill had a limited object, namely, to amend certain provisions of the existing Village Self-Government Act so as to make popular control over village police more effective. After a long discussion this Bill was referred to a Select Committee. The Bombay Council had before it during 1925 a Bill to amend the City of Bombay Municipal Act, another to give wider powers in the management of Municipal affairs to certain cities, a third to amend the Bombay Local Boards Act, and a fourth to transfer the powers and duties of the trustees for the improvement of the City of Bombay, to the Municipal Corporation of Bombay. These were all Government Bills, but there were also a number of private Bills dealing with the same subjects, village police receiving attention here as in Bengal. Burma, Madras, the United Provinces, the Central Provinces and the Punjab also had Bills before their councils dealing with local self-government.

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Primary Education, in some provinces, was as popular a subject as Local self-government, and in other provinces the question of improving Civil Courts was much to the fore. But in every province of India during 1925, actual legislation occupied a comparatively small part of the time of the Councils. the greater part being taken up with questions and innumerable resolutions, ranging from the remuneration of unskilled labourers employed on survey work, to the release of political prisoners and other questions of high politics. Many of these resolutions and questions are of a kind to stimulate public interest to a high degree, and, consequently, they are apt to occupy an amount of time quite out of proportion to their value. Still, they show the fierce light which beats now-a-days on all the actions of Provincial Governments, and any subject introduced by them in which improvement is desirable and possible is assured of attention, whilst Local Governments are kept in the closest possible touch with all movements of public opinion.

In such a vast subject as the activities of the Provincial Governments of India during the year, it is, of course, possible only to distinguish the main objects of these activities and study them in outline. The principal "transferred" subjects are: Co-operative Societies, Local Self-Government, Education (except European Education and Universities), Agriculture, Medicine, and Industries, whilst on the "reserved" side; police, law and order generally, and Irrigation, and University and European Education are the most important subjects. A survey of all these save irrigation, agriculture and industries, which will be discussed elsewhere, will occupy this chapter.

The importance of the Co-operative movement in this country need not be stressed. It is a truism that Agriculture is India's greatest industry and it is well-known that of all Indian problems none exceeds in importance the problem of the welfare of India's rural population, whether looked at from the point of view of the numbers of people concerned, or of its inherent difficulties and wide ramifications. The Royal Commission on Indian Agriculture will explore thoroughly every way in which the Government of India can help to improve the organisation, credit and marketing of the rural population, but, of course, Government action has its limits. The Co-operative movement with its ideals of self-help and mutual assistance carries on where Government action must perforce stop. The movement in India is now just over 20 years old and its history