IMPERIALISM V. FEDERALISM 93
from the following :—
| Cost of the Army of Occupation. Debited to Amount Rs. Madras 79,83,000 | Revenues derived from the Occupied Territory Credited to Amount Rs. Bombay ... 20,00,000 Bengal ... 1,04,22,870 |
|---|
Compiled from ibid, p. 475.
Taking into consideration the iniquities involved in such a system of accounts, it is beyond dispute that the advantage claimed by the Federalists for their plan was neither fictitious nor petty. A division of functions between the Federal and Provincial Governments would have in itself been an advantage by comparison with the existing chaos. And, if it did not result in equity, it had at least the merit of opening a way for it.
When however the Federal plan was put before the authorities in the form of a practical proposal, it gave rise to a determined opposition. The challenge was at once taken up by the supporters of the Imperial system who, be it noted, were mostly military men in civil employ. They opened their attack on the Federal plan from two sides, that of practicability and expediency.
Is it possible, asked the Imperialists, to localize the revenues and charges of India as belonging distinctively to one particular province ? They insisted that
“from the commencement of (the British) power (in India).....the interests and affairs of (the) presidencies and the provinces have been interwoven and interlaced— one often overlapping the other, and vice versa—in a manner from which extrication or disentanglement is now impossible, without making changes which would entail inconveniences greater than any entailed by the existing system..... The army of Bengal Presidency is quartered not in the rich districts of the Lower Ganges, but mainly in the poorer districts of the Punjab. Thus placed, that army defends virtually the whole Presidency. The Madras army is not kept within that Presidency, but holds, besides the Madras country, the Deccan, the Central Provinces, and British Burma. Similarly the Bombay army holds,