Excerpt from India: A Nation; A Plea for Self-Government Indian aspirations, has characterised the treatment in this respect by En land of India as a permanent discredit to British rule. Rigf there is' one matter in which India needs encouragement 'more than in another, it is in the direction of industrial growth, so as to relieve the tension on agricultural industry and to develop the tremendous resources of the country. For far too long a period we have been dominated by antiquated Cobdenism. The subsidised goods of foreign and protected countries have been thrust upon us. The hobby has been ridden to death that all taxation must be for revenue only. Taxing as a means of supporting young ih dustries has not been even dreamt of. Most of our rivals are consistently Protectionist, and our trade is passing into their hands. We have not, in spite of appeals from the press and platform, even the right to help ourselves against competitors outside the Empire. The cotton excise duties are an unheard oi form of discouragement, and India is forbidden to levy for her own purposes export duties on commodities which are her natural monopolies, such as jute. The result is that the Government are at their wits' end to devise fresh sources of revenue, and cannot properly grapple with new and expanding items of expenditure. Infiianvtariffs as maintained at present are the best possible means for bringing about the strangula tion of industries, the needless enhancement of the cost of various commodities, and the increase of indefensible taxation. An export duty on jute and an import duty on sugar and foreign cotton goods were both advocated by Mr. Gokhale, but his was a voice in the wilderness. Not otherwise than by complete fiscal autonomy do we feel that we shall have a fair chance in the struggle for national existence. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.