THE DAILY PROVINCE
JANUARY 9, 1909

INDIAN ANARCHISTS.
------------------The Indian police are still prosecuting with vigor their search for those
lately implicated in the recent anarchist plots. It is not easy in a country like
India, where the native quarter of every town very much resembles a rabbit
warren, to arrest offenders. Nevertheless, if the task is found difficult, the
authorities are taking every precaution against the spread of the
revolutionary propaganda. The eastern, when he takes it into his head to
ferment sedition, possesses a mind as resourceful as that of any western
agitator. He thoroughly understands the native character; he knows how best
to stimulate disaffection; and how to attain popular sympathy. Still, means are
being found of effectively propagating the anarchist movement, and that a
very insidious one. Armed with a gramophone the leaders of the propaganda
are stalking the land with records of seditious songs and speeches, which are
“let off” as occasion offers. Nothing is easier in India than to collect a crowd;
nothing excites interest more than novelty. It may thus be imagined how very
popular the gramophone “corner man” is likely to be. Such an instrument has
never been seen before; in parts of Central Asia it is even feared as the voice of
a hidden god or fiend. The majority of natives in India will regard it much in
the same way. This in itself has a dangerous tendency to excite native
apprehension, but when in addition the voice of the unseen god preaches
revolution the consequences might well prove disastrous. Thus the
government has very wisely prohibited all such street entertainments, and,
further, has warned persons found selling such records that they will be
severely dealt with. This is yet another proof of the government’s
determination to stamp out by all possible means the anarchist germ.