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INDIA

There is, indeed, little difference between the life of the
official Englishman in India and his life in England ; and
nearly the whole of Indian society is official. It is this
fact, and the exact knowledge of the social circumstances
which surround each unit in Indian society, which leads to
that freedom of intercourse which is one of its greatest
charms. If Indian society is official, it is also young, and
it is mostly happy. In a community in which all people
are living in much the same style there is little social
rivalry, and there arises, on the other hand, much warm
friendship and mutual good-fellowship.
Into the intricate question of the depreciated rupee
we will not enter except to note a few of the general
effects of its depreciation. Amongst natives and permanent
 residents, who spend their incomes in India, there is,
perhaps, but little corresponding depreciation in their usual
manner of living. It is true that prices have permanently
risen almost all over India for foodstuffs ; but the wageearner
 finds his wages higher, and has more rupees to
spend, and the cultivator finds a more or less even balance
between what he gets for his produce and pays for his
scanty clothes and his seeds. The middleman and the
bunniah gain largely, and the same may be said of
European merchants, who buy produce in India to sell
in English markets, and to be paid for in English gold:
But the Government, which has large payments to make
in England, and the European official who has to remit
the best part of his income home for educational or other
purposes, loses. To the Government of India a fall in
the value of the rupee equal to one penny represents the
actual loss of a million sterling per annum. To the
official struggling with a growing family and the demands
of a proper official entourage in India, the result of depreciation
 is almost disastrous. It is true that the rupee, in
certain directions, still represents nearly its original purchasing
 capacity ; but for other reasons than its depreciation
 prices have undoubtedly risen on the whole.
Wages, food, and nearly all the necessaries of life cost
more in India than they did twenty years ago, whilst