' Why should
such folk look up from their immemorially appointed round of duty and
interests to meddle with the unknown and fuss with voting-papers. How would
you, atop of all your interests care to conduct even one-tenth of your life
according to the manners and customs of the Papuans, let's say? That's what it
comes to."
"But if they won't take the trouble to vote, why do you anticipate that
Mohammedans, proprietors, and the rest would be crushed by majorities of
them?"
Again Pagett disregarded the closing sentence.
"Because, though the landholders would not move a finger on any purely
political question, they could be raised in dangerous excitement by religious
hatreds. Already the first note of this has been sounded by the people who are
trying to get up an agitation on the cow-killing question, and every year
there is trouble over the Mohammedan Muharrum processions.
"But who looks after the popular rights, being thus unrepresented?"
"The Government of Her Majesty the Queen, Empress of India, in which, if the
Congress promoters are to be believed, the people have an implicit trust; for
the Congress circular, specially prepared for rustic comprehension, says the
movement is 'for the remission of tax, the advancement of Hindustan, and the
strengthening of the British Government.
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