The Karens of Burma are more numerous in proportion, and fully as distinct. It is their plea that this distinction as between Burmese and Karens be fully recognized, and acted on-to the benefit of Government and the contentment of the people; at present officials and Government servants in strong Karen communities are largely ignorant even of the language of the people. Let a condition be made that for service in the “Karen country,” the candidate, whatever his nationality, should pass an examination in Karen.

The educational qualification required in the service of the Karen country should be lower than those required for Burma as a whole. The Karens are still classified as a backward race, and it would only be fair to allow them lower qualifications for service. There will then be no dearth of candidates for the different services. For clerkships and ordinary posts in all departments an Anglo-Vernacular Seventh Standard qualification, and for posts like the Deputy Myookship a High School Final qualification only should be required. It might be mentioned that in Sir Reginald Craddock’s original scheme for the Deputy Myookship the qualification specified was the High School Final Examination, although at present candidates from the ranks of University graduates have received preference over those with the High School Final qualification. Higher services such as the Burma Civil Service, Judicial Service, and so on alone should claim university-graduates under such a scheme.

If the above suggestion is accepted there will be no dearth of candidates for all the services for the whole Division as is feared by some officials with whom the writer has discussed the matter. If it is found that Karens cannot supply the requisite number of men in addition to the British officials, candidates of Burmese or any other nationality may be temporarily accepted until Karen candidates with the necessary qualifications are available. Of course, the above is only a bare outline of the scheme, but the matter can be left in the hands of the highly-experienced British officers who will be in direct charge of the administration of the Karen country.

“Karen Country,” how inspiring it sounds! What thoughts, what manly feeling, what wonderful visions of the future the words conjure forth in the mind of a Karen. It was a highly-placed official to whom may be credited the origin of the name. A young Karen subordinate civilian officer had been recommended by his Deputy Commissioner and his Commissioner for dismissal from the service. The young officer went personally to the Chief Secretary and related the whole story of how it happened that he incurred the displeasure of his superior officer. A Burmese Sub-Divisional officer had found fault with him for something which, in the ordinary course of events, would have been overlooked and for which at most some chastisement would have sufficed; but the Sub-Divisional officer enlarged upon the fault or neglect and made such a strong report to the Deputy Commissioner, without hesitation, recommended the young man’s dismissal. It so happened that this high official was in the Chief Secretary’s office at the time, and after hearing the story he said, “You Karens should all go to a ‘Karen Country’ since you cannot get along in other parts of the Province.”

In support of my contention for a “Karen Country” some lines may be quoted from the book India-a Federation? By Sir Frederick Whyte-hose name has more than once been quoted - First President of the Imperial Assembly of India, well-known to Burma as chairman of the Whyte Committee on the Reforms Scheme. “Love of the country or patriotism is compounded of many things - sentiment, historic associations, community of economic interest, attachment to the soil itself, trials and triumphs shared in common-which when wielded together make nationality. Love of country is an affection, nationality the intellectual conception in which it is cast by political science. It has been defined many times, but never to the complete satisfaction of those who know what it is and how it can sway the hearts of men and move mountains. A nation has been defined as “a body of people united by a corporate sentiment of peculiar intensity, intimacy and dignity, related to a definite home country.” This is a comprehensive definition in which the essentials are the unity, the corporate sentiment and the definite home country. These factors may be present in a Scotsman, for instance, both in relation to his nearer and dearer homeland of Scotland and in relation to the larger patria of Britain. Here two patriotisms happily interwoven in a manner far more complete than that in which a Bengali can say that he belongs to the whole of India and the whole of India belongs to him. It is because of the fusion of the two patriotisms that Great Britain is truly a United Kingdom; and it is because that fusion is far from perfect in India that Indian Nationality is as yet no more than adolescent.

 

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