ABSTRACT
This chapter asserts that taking the role of ‘paternal despotism’ made England even more responsible to the citizens of India, while metaphorically seeing India as a tenant (to England’s landlord). Indeed, the piece declares that since Britain had created a ‘magnificent dependency’ across the empire, its consequent ‘imperative duty’ as a ‘landlord’ in one of the ‘finest’ countries in which to practice ‘statesmanship’ was to save the affected people of India in times of disaster. The famine which is now sweeping off its thousands a week affects the south-western portion of Bengal and the northernmost district of the Madras Presidency, which is coterminous with it. Wars, mutinies, famines, and countless lesser disasters may be, as they have been, consequent upon political mistakes which ordinary attention, common sense, and good feeling on the part of the Imperial Parliament might prevent. India presents one of the finest fields in the world for good statesmanship.
