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Cellular Jail 21-9-1919 Port Blair My dear brother, I expected to hear from you as soon as you reached Bombay and so I waited longer than usual. But as I have not heard from you uptil now I have decided not to wait further in writing to you. Ever since my last letter to you, my health has been just as it was when you saw me. After your going back, for a week or so, it continued to be well and then again, either a malarious fever or an attack of dysentry upsets it and takes a toll of lb. or so, causing my weight to fall yet more and again it continues well for a week or a fortnight further. Thus, have I been going on and on and consequently my weight, which last year, when I wrote to you, was on the average at 99 lbs., has for the last couple of months been at 96 lbs. and 95 lbs. In fact, my health would have been worse but for the little better food and little better cell that have been allowed to me though too late, and although my weight is rapidly going down yet, on the whole, my appetite is improved and my stomach causes less complaints owing to the hospital diet that I have been getting for the last 10 months or so. Moreover, in consideration of my weakness and chronic malarious inroads, I have been treated as a hospital patient and have been exempted from rigorous work. So far as this jail life is concerned, I gladly state that the Superintendent has been trying to put things as straight as he can after I wrote to you about the rapid breaking down of my health. But it is, therefore, all the more necessary and is all the more forcibly demonstrated how necessary it is to remove me from this unhealthy and malarious climate, where in spite of much attention of the jail superintendent, my health and my weight are ever on the decline, and not a fortnight passes without a fever or some attack of stomach complaints. I can assure you that the climate of this place is acknowledged as a very unhealthy one and the life in a cellular jail in such a climate as doubly dangerous to the health of even a strongly built man used to hard labour throughout his life by the medical authorities themselves. I do not know whether you in India know anything about the order that was read out here on the day of the peace celebration in England, concerning the Amnesty of prisoners. On that day or owing to the remission granted on that day—some convicts have up to this time been released from this convict colony. But so far as the political prisoners are concerned,

nothing beyond the vaguest promises was done, not a single day's remission has been as yet positively granted to any of them barring a couple of Bengali P.P.s. An order was read out in the name of the Secretary of State and the Government that so far as the political prisoners were concerned, the Government was considering the question of granting some remission to them. The above consideration being guided by the opinion of the respective provincial Governments in the first instance and secondly, by the local recommendations of the jail authorities based on the jail conduct of the prisoners. Moreover, the personal opinions of the individual prisoner would be carefully weighed before any decision is arrived at! Now this language may mean much or what is more likely may mean nothing. No time is mentioned as to when the decision would be arrived at. And, when, in addition to that, one remembers that four years ago, the Indian Government had been pleased to assure me that they were even then having the question of Amnesty 'under consideration', one hardly can help suspecting that this reiteration of the same words may be asking for another four years hence. Again the clause referring to the personal opinions is very likely to be the curse of almost anyone who falls under the head of P.P.s., for if personal opinions means the opinions of the individual about the political situation in India—then, of course, that is quite sensible and natural—but how the Government is going to know about them? If by the statements of the individual concerned then, there could be no objection to that at all. But if—as is more likely to happen by hearsay or secret reports, then it would be better if the Government and the public would be frankly telling that they do neither wish nor want to consider this question at all. For being forced to live amongst such a distinguished company such as thieves, robbers and habitual convicts and in such a company alone—what chance is there that these would be reporting only truth about our opinions on politics, when these neither understand a bit of what opinions on politics mean, nor are ever wanting in the gift of instinctively hating anyone who is spotted out to them by the authorities as one whose opinions they are required to report. No sooner does an officer ask these 'gentlemen' in the jail to know and inform about A or B, than do these people come to the conclusion that a report against that individual would be more likely to increase their importance in the eyes of the authorities. And even the highest officers in an institution like jail cannot but depend on the reports of these men, who have themselves been convicts and criminals and raised to

higher posts in the jail through sheer double dealing and in general, this is the case. So, I think unless the public makes all these matters clear to the Indian Government in time and even now, even with the best of intentions on the part of the Secretary of State, little or nothing will come out of the promise that the Government has made. Do you know anything about this promise? Is it made public? If so, are the provincial Governments already approached and have they submitted their opinion? Has anyone attempted to get the time fixed or at any rate approximately but definitely indicated by the Government? I again submit that unless the public makes it quite clear and that not spasmodically but systematically that there is an unanimous, hearty and determined desire in the hearts of our countrymen to effect an Amnesty of the political prisoners before this opportunity of the peace celebration passes by, the Indian Government can neither be in a mood and even if in a mood, yet not in a position to do much in this direction. The promise, vague as it is, is made to feel the public pulse, and if the people do not before hand express their will and sympathy with this projected Amnesty, I for one could not find much cause to blame the Government for not having granted it. If the charge of 109, 302 is true against me, it is truer against all. And, if for that, I am not going to be released as a political prisoner, then there is no political prisoner in India at all! I simply indicate the line of argument knowing pretty well that you would fill it in much better way than I can do it here. Secondly ‘jail conduct.’ Well for the last five years, there had been no occasion of being cased even once. I am sure, the authorities here, would not have anything particular against me, on that score, to say. Thirdly, so far as my personal opinions are concerned, well I had been definitely and clearly stating them to all concerned—the Government itself not excepted. So early as 1915 and again in 1918, I had sent, and sent voluntarily a clear statement of my thoughts knowing full well that misunderstood, they were quite likely to deprive me of any chance of release. The statement sent to the Government is exactly like what I wrote to you in my letter last year and which had already been before the public eye. So, neither the public nor the Government can be in any way unacquainted with my opinions. I believe that as soon as the reforms are effected, and if they be soon effected and at least the Viceregal Councils are made to represent the voice of the people, then there would be no hesitation on my part—infinitestibly humble though it be—to make the beginning of

such a constitutional development a success, to stand by Law and Order, which is the very foundation and basis of Society in general and Hindu polity in particular. Do not the Scots or ever the Majorities of the Boers choose to maintain a partnership in the Empire when that Empire opens better facilities for their respective developments than otherwise? India too and for the matter of that, any other people ought to and naturally will join in forming a Commonwealth and an Empire. Why should they be against it? When such a common life promises to be more fruitful than divided petty and lonely individuality? As man is Social animal, so is also a state. And Empires had been and would be as natural a development of the inherent tendencies of the social nature of man as nations and families had been. Well my dear Bal, I have been getting fever for the last two days, as I have caught a cold and so find it necessary to leave much that I meant to write to you. Please take care of your health, and do not worry on our account or any other account. Take things easy. Please not to forget what I told you about our family affairs when you met me, try to save a little and spend less. Dear Yamuna promised me to send a very very big parcel of almonds and candy and sweets and what not at an early date. But being very very big, it is quite natural that it is taking months to pack it up. It was indeed a pleasure to see her and know how she is as courageous and as sweet as ever. But poor Vahini! Half the joy of any release fades into apthy at the thought of my going back to a home, where she is not likely to come to welcome me! My earliest friend, my sister, my mother and my comrade—in one, all at once, she really died as dies a suttee! Did she not immolate her silent soul and even at the altar of our Motherland? Ah! as truly as martyr dies for his Land or Religion, do these Indian girls of today die panting, withering, watching for the return of their lovers who are not destined to meet them, suffering in silence, serving though unknown, paying though unacknowledged—do these Hindu girls pine away and die for their Motherland, for their religion. Woman in general is sweet beyond measure! But a Hindu girl—good, good good. She inflames not but soothes, remembers though forgotten each and an ever newly-published edition of the Immortal Story of Sita! Dear Baba asks me to tell you to console Mathutai especially on his behalf; he feels more for her than our dear Vahini herself. Nothing pleased me so much as to find you quite healthy and bubbling over with life when I saw you here. Always try to be as healthy and more. I am totally unable both owing to the intensity of my feeling and

the circumstances, under which I have to pen this letter to express faithfully my and our thanks and sense of gratefulness to all those, who, through a personal or public concern had felt such deep sympathy for me and for us and tried to bring some relief or other to us. To tell you the truth, I honestly believe that this consciousness alone had been the only medicine that has enabled me to pull on without being worse and in fact made me live throughout this year in spite of dysentery, malaria and jail—this consciousness that there are so many men in my Bharatvarsha who are ready to share my sadness and lighten my burden—friends that enquire and papers that wrote—those who are moved through personal friendship or acquaintance and much more than that those who felt out of a genuine and simple humanity. How is my dear Shanta? Don’t you trouble her much for any reading or writing. But do trouble as much as you can my friend Yamuna on that score—she has promised me to act as a typewriter and a clerk—of course, without any pay and out of sheer patriotic fevour! When, and if, I ever come back and my love to dear Babu, Anna and all my brothers-in-law. Yours affectionately TATYA ❑

Cellular Jail 6-7-1920 Port Blair My Dearest Bal, Your letter to dear Baba, dated 2-6-20, reached us and made us glad by removing the sense of anxiety caused by your constant postponing your coming over here. My health is just as it was when you left me. It is not worse either. But after your going, the health of our brother has been going from bad to worse. It is his turn now. The complaint is the same. Digestion troubles and consequent liver disorder. His weight is 106 Ibs. Because I write this much, do not imagine that our health must be worse still. Not so. I write exactly as it stands. If something worse happens, I shall inform you of it. After all, the general amnesty has come! Hundreds are being released. Thanks chiefly to the great exertions of the Bombay National Union and of our leaders and of our patriotic country-men, who organised, supported and signed the mass petition for the release of Indian political prisoners. That huge petition signed by no less than 75,000 people at such a short notice as that must have certainly put an immense though unacknowledged pressure on the Government. At any rate, it elevated the moral status of the PoP.s and, therefore, of the cause for which they fought and fell. Now, indeed, our release if at all it comes is worth having, as the people have expressed their desire to have us back. We cannot sufficiently thank our countrymen for sympathy and solicitude for us all. They had really shown greater regard for us than we honestly believe to have deserved. Nor have their efforts been entirely fruitless. For, although we two have been declared to fall outside the scope of the Amnesty and are still rotting in the cells, yet the sight of hundreds of our political comrades and co-sufferers' release makes us feel relieved and repaid for all the agitation that we have been carrying on for the last eight years or so, through strikes, letters, petitions, the press and the platfrom, here and elsewhere. On 2-4-20, I put in a fresh petition to the Government of India on the subject of Royal clemency recently granted. Therein, after thanking the Government for the release of hundreds of political prisoners and for thus partially granting my petition of 1918, I have pleaded for the further extention of the Royal clemency to those who are yet in jail as well as to the political exiles abroad. I had once more defined my personal position as

regards the political situation in India, especially with reference to those questions, which from time-to-time are still being discussed and debated upon in the official circles and have been personally pressed before me by some of them only very recently. We believe in an universal state embracing all mankind and wherein all men and women would be citizens working for and enjoying equally the fruits of this earth and this sun, this land and this light, which constitute the real Motherland and the Fatherland of man. All other divisions and distinctions are artificial, though indispensable. Believing thus that the ideal of all political science and art is or ought to be Human state in which all nations merge their political selves for their own fulfilment even as the cells in an organism, organisms in families and tribes, and tribes in nation-states have done; and believing, therefore, that humanity is higher patriotism and, therefore, any Empire or Commonwealth that succeeds in welding numbers of conflicting races and nations in one harmonious, if not homogenious whole, in such wory as to render each of them better fitted to realize, enrich and enjoy life in all its noble aspects is a distinct step to the realization of that ideal I can conscientiously co-operate with any attempt to found a commonwealth, which would be neither British nor Indian but which may, till a better name be devised, be styled as an Aryan Commonwealth. With this end in view, I ever worked in the past. With this end in view, I am willing to work now. And therefore, I rejoiced to hear that the Government has changed its angle of vision and meant to make it possible for India to advance constitutionally on the path to freedom and strength and fulness of life. I am sure that many a revolutionist would, like me, cry halt under such circumstances and try to meet England under an honourable truce, even in a halfway house as the reformed Council Halls promised to be, and work there, before a further march on to progress be sounded. For, it was this very principle that humanity was a higher patriotism that made us so restless when we saw that a part or it should aggrandise and swell like a virulent cancer in such wise as to threaten the life of the human whole; and forced us for the want of any other effective remedy, to take to the surgeon's knife and feel that severity for the moment would certainly be mercy in the long run. But even while combating force with force, we heartily abhorred and do yet abhor all violence. For violence is force aggressively used—force that is life killing. I never cherished, not even in my dreams, any aggressive ambition for personal or national

aggrandisement, and so far was I from being a party to violence, that actually kept opposing it tooth and nail whenever I saw it used by powerful combinations against their weaker but righteous rivals. I heartily abhorred violence resorted to in days gone by—by ambitious men and nations not only outside India but even in India herself. I felt as rebellious against the caste systems and the untouchability inside India as her being dominated by foreigners from outside. Thus, we were revolutionists under necessity and not by choice. We felt that the best interests of India as well as of England demanded that her ideals be progressively and peacefully realized by mutual help and co- operation. And if that be possible even now, I shall take the first opportunity to resort to peaceful means and rush in the first constitutional breach effected by revolution or otherwise, however narrow it be, and try to widen it so as to enable the forces of evolution to flow in an uninterrupted procession. If the reforms wholeheartedly effected and worked out by the Government would serve the purpose of such a constitutional breach as that then revolution ceases and evolution becomes a watchword and a rallying cry of us all. And I, as one humble soldier in Her rank, would honestly try my best to make the reform successful, that is, work them out so as to render them a stepping stone to the realization of the great mission of our generation of making India free and great and glorious, leading or marching hand-in-hand with others to the appointed destiny of man. Such were my views when I was working in the revolutionary camp. And such are my views after 12 long years of being pent up within the four walls of a solitary cell. True it is that we found it impossible to bear love and loyalty to laws that were dictated by the sword, and constitutions that serve as masks to conceal the hideousness of tyranny, yet it is equally true that we honestly felt and still feel ourselves in duty bound to stand by the side of Law—that is the expression of the righteous resolve of a free people and Constitution that holds together, harmonizes and fuses the efforts of free men and women towards the good of man and the glory of God. As to the question so often put to me and others by officers no less exalted than the members of the Indian Cabinet: ‘What if you had rebelled against the ancient kings of India? They used to trample rebels under the feet of Elephants.’ I answer that not only in India but even in England and all other parts of the world, such would have at times been the fate of rebels. But

then why did the British people fill the whole world with a howl that the Germans had ill-treated their captives and did not allow them fresh bread and butter? What if the Germans had reminded them—Fresh bread and butter! There was a time when captives were flayed alive and offered as victims to Moloch and Thor and such other Gods of war!’ The thing is this that this advanced stage in civilization attained by man is the resultant of the efforts of all men and therefore their common inheritance and benefits all. Speaking relatively to Barbarian times, it is true that I had a fair trial and a just sentence and the Government is at liberty to derive whatever satisfaction they can from the compliment that they give a fairer trial and a juster sentence to their captives than the cannibals used to do. But it should not be forgotten that if in olden days, the rulers flayed their rebels alive then the rebels too when they got the upper hand flayed alive the rulers as well. And if the British people treated me or other rebels more justly, i.e. less barbarously then they may rest assured that they too would be as leniently treated by the Indian rebels if ever the tables are turned? Please do not hope much from this petition so far as our release is concerned. We never pitched our hopes too high and if not released, we shall not be very much disappointed. We are quite prepared to face it either way. You have tried your best and it is mainly due to your unceasing efforts that the release of P.P.s became such a burning question as that and though not we two, yet hundreds of others have won back their liberty. Hoping to find you in good health and with best and loving regards to all our friends and relations. I remain dear brother Yours affectionately TATYA ❑

Miscellaneous Statements and Writings The Nepal Movement (1925 A.D.) Our doubts are traitors. And make us lose the good we oft might win. By fearing to attempt. —Shakespeare It is very gratifying to note that the Nepal movement has recorded a satisfactory progress during the last year. A couple of years ago, Hindusthan as a whole and even the leaders of Hindu thought in general, were totally unconscious of the far-reaching influence, which the movement is likely to exercise, if well and ably handled, on the future of the Sanghatan movement. The Hindu press was too busy in writing columns after columns about the duty of Hindus owed to the Khalifa in Turkey or the famine-stricken poor folk in Constantinople. The Hindu public was too much moved at the news that certain mosques in Syria had fallen in a dilapidated condition and was busy gathering funds with M. Shaukat Ali to rebuild it and the Hindu leaders led by the ablest of them, Mahatma Gandhi, who always knows how to lead and who never knows where to lead, were straining every fibre of their pinny hands to prop up the Khalifa on the throne of Turkey, whom his own people wanted to get rid of and were too much occupied in their efforts to save Mesopotamia and Arabia and Egypt and Syria and, in fact, all the great world but Hindusthan—to care how Nepal, that only independent Hindu Kingdom fared. When the independence of Afghanistan was formally recognised by the British nation, there passed a wave of enthusiasm over the Hindu press and the Hindu platform and thousands of Hindus took part in the anniversary celebrations in memory of that event. But for months, the formal recognition by the British nation of the independence of the Hindu Kingdom of Nepal remained entirely unnoticed by the Hindu press. Even the news did not appear in the majority of the Hindu papers. The Anglo-Indian papers knew what the recognition meant and noticed it with few suggestive remarks. A khadi shop opened somewhere in the village in Assam, used to receive more prominence in the great Hindu dailies and weeklies in Bombay, Madras, Calcutta and Lahore than the terms of this important treaty, that was signed between Britain and Nepal, did. We are not exaggerating; matters stood exactly like that. Nay, even today, a section of the Hindu press is groping as

hopelessly in this suicidal blindness to our own interests and what is worse, is sticking it up as a feather into his cap. The Mohamedan will swagger to know about his Amir and Sultan but ask a Hindu if he had ever heard of an independent Hindu Kingdom that still flies its flag, unsullied and unbeaten, he will give you a blank look. Even when you mention Nepal, he will at the most, shrink his shoulders and crowl out: ‘Oh! the Gurkhas! what traitors they are!’ Against this criminal apathy that Hindus exhibited towards Nepal and as a reaction Nepal had been guilty of exhibiting towards the Hindus outside Nepal, it was the Maratha press that was first to raise a powerful and vigorous protest. It opened the eyes of the Hindu public to the far-reaching consequences that the general awakening amongst the Hindus of Nepal and outside was likely to have, if the forces of Hindudom as a whole were made to work towards a wide, definite and well-outlined common goal. Sindh and the Hindu press in Calcutta followed. The Arya Samaj papers soon caught the flame. The Hindu Mahasabha nearly offered its presidentship to the Maharajadhiraj of Nepal and although His majesty could not accept it for weighty reasons, and although the question was dropped before it was pressed to the last stage, the special session of the Mahasabha unanimously passed a resolution at Belgaum congratulating His Majesty on the recognition of the independence of the Hindu Kingdom by England and France as well and expressed in significant words the hopes and aspirations which the strength and the greatness of Nepal aroused in the hearts of Hindu patriots all over India. This general awakening of Hindu mind naturally called forth opposition. Attempts to misguide and divide by raising false issues in the name of solemn history and disinterested sophistry, which wanted to assure us that Nepal was not, had never been a part of India nor the people there had anything common with the Hindus outside Nepal, were not wanting. But such disingenuous attempts to alienate the Gurkhas away from their brother —Hindus in India—only intensified the interest of the general public on the question and the Nepal movement began to loom even larger and larger on the horizon of Hindu hope. Just then, the anniversaries of birth of the Majesty, the King of Nepal and Excellency, the Prime Minister of that kingdom furnished an occasion that proved the movement had entered on the third stage of its existence. For the interest that the Hindus had begun to take in the affairs of Nepal, has at last

roused the Gurkhas to the sense of their own importance and strength and let us hope of their duty too, which as the foremost section of the Hindu people, they owe to Hindudom as a whole. This year the citizens of Nepal, Gurkhas and Newaries observed in Calcutta the birthdays of their King and Minister as national festivals and several distinguished Hindus took prominent part in the proceedings. The National banner of Nepal was raised and all Hindus worshipped the colours of the only independent Kingdom with a fitting devotion and ceremony. National songs were sung by the Gurkhas, which exhorted them to organise and serve their Motherland and strive as champions of the Hindu Dharma and the Hindu race. These are the first signs of the awakening of a great people. That even the little interest and love that the Hindu outside Nepal manifested and extended towards our countrymen and the brethren in Nepal, should have within a year’s course, roused the Gurkhas and made them respond so deeply, it all augurs well for the Sanghatan. The Hindu Sabha of Ratnagiri and Nasik and Bombay and Sindh and Poona and Calcutta set the example, which was quickly followed by other Sabhas at Delhi and several other places by organising public meetings and conveying public congratulations to His Majesty and His Excellency on their respective birthdays and assure them of the deep love, regard and pride that the Hindus feel and cherish as regards the Hindu Kingdom and the confident hope that it will, God willing, serve as the main mast of the movement of Hindu Sanghatan. Thus, the work of a year is not disappointing, it is even gratifying, for not only the Hindus have grown conscious of Nepal but what is far more important, Nepal, too, has grown conscious of herself. Let us not forget that what is done is as nothing in respect of what is yet to be accomplished. For all movements that are at present agitating the heart of Hindudom, none is so pregnant with results, great and glorious, as is the movement that aims at bringing the Hindus of Nepal in line with their co-religionists and countrymen outside Nepal and enthusing them with one hope and inspiring them with a great ideal, wield all Hindudom into an organic and mighty whole. This is what Hindu Sanghatan aims at. . ❑

Awaken Nepal (1926 A.D.) या भूमंडळाचे ठायीं। हिंदु ऐसा उरला नाहीं। हिंदु राष्ट्र राहिलें काहीं॥ तुम्हा कारणें॥ The 19th of July was the twenty-first birth anniversary of His Majesty the King of Nepal, Rana Tribhuwan Veer Vikramdeo. Hindudom heartily sends forth, to thee, oh Ranaji! its loyal greetings in loving homage on this auspicious occasion. Some three hundred years ago, a hermit saint of Maharashtra went round on pilgrimage to all the four Mahadwars of Bharat Varsha from Attock to Kanyakumari, Dwarka and Jagannath. Having thus surveyed the whole Hindusthan, he came back to Maharashtra with a bleeding heart and bewailed that throughout the world, there was not a place where the Hindu banner could raise its head anew, no Hindu could champion the cause of his fallen race! While his heart was bleeding thus with unutterable grief and anxiety, his eyes caught the sight of a rising youth and his heroic band. Patriotic joy swelled in his hermit bosom and the prophet pointing out that heroic Hindu youth, with his brave band of followers, exclaimed. But there! Even though no Hindu is left throughout the world who could lead his race to greatness and glory, there in thee, oh Maharashtra, I discern some signs of hope in that heroic youth and his brave band! Our nation and our faith may yet live through them. या भूमंडळाचे ठायीं। हिंदु ऐसा उरला नाहीं। महाराष्ट्र धर्म राहिलें कांहीं॥ तुम्हा कारणें॥ Saying so, he handed over a gerua (भगवा) kerchief to them as a token of his divine blessings. The hermit saint was Ramdas, the rising youth was Shivaji and the brave band of his followers were they, who and whose descendants raised the kerchief as their banner and carried it to Attak till it came to represent the strength and glory and the mission of a mighty Hindu Empire. This was three hundred years ago. But if the spirit of that patriotic saint troubled at the news of this second calamity that has befallen his Hindu race, comes down to visit our Earth today, then standing once more on the debris of crowns and coronets of Hindu kings and kingdoms and reviewing with a bleeding heart, the whole

situation with a view to discerning if possible a point, which may yet serve as a position of vantage to start anew the movement, with means ever changing to suit changed circumstances but with the ideal full in view, Ramdas is sure to lay his unerring finger on thee, oh Nepal, as he did on Maharashtra then, and exclaim in prophetic accents anew. या भूमंडळाचे ठायीं। हिंदु ऐसा उरला नाहीं। हिंदु राष्ट्र उरहें काहीं।। तुम्हा कारणें।। Amidst this general wreck of Hindu crowns and coronets of Hindu aspirations and ambitions, I still discern enthroned and living in thee, oh, Nepal, the seed of Hindu hope! God has not spared thee in vain. Through thee, the Hindu race and the Hindu Nation may yet scale the Himalayan heights of its ancient glory. Destiny at times loves to conceal mighty meanings in ciphers that seem but trifling. Can it be then that, if what tradition tells be true and that gerua kerchief handed over by Ramdas to Shivaji has through strange vicissitudes receded to the strongholds of Nepal and is being preserved and worshipped along with the gadi of Peshwas in a temple at Khatmandu. Can it be that emblem and insignia that once authorised the Marathas to lead the cause of the Hindu race and religion have now been handed over to thee, Oh Nepal, to invest thee with the same rights and responsibilities to champion the cause of Hindudom under changed circumstances with means necessarily changed? If the tradition is true, the Marathas are glad to find that these relics of their past should have been spared the humiliation of being exposed to the impudent and vulgar foreign gaze in one of the museums in the capital of their conquerors and should have found a safe and honourable asylum in Nepal where the standard of Hindu independence is still holding its own. Our drooping hands hand over to thee, Oh Nepal, the standard of Hindu cause. Hold it aloft! Awake to thy new and mighty responsibilities! Lead the Sanghatan! We will follow thee! May the guardian Deities of our Hindu race inspire thee with mighty aspirations and high designs, add ever increasing strength to thy arms and may glory follow thee till Hindudom is restored to its rightful place in the commonwealth of man and shines once more, even as it did in the days of Shri Ram or Ashok the Priya Darshin.

Nepal in the Bombay Session of the Hindu Conference (1926) Another, yet more significant feature of the conference that deserves to be specially emphasised was the presence and the thrilling speech of Shriyut Agamgiri, a Nepali leader, who came all the way from Calcutta to Bombay with a set purpose of representing the feelings of our Nepali Hindu brethren towards the Sanghatan movement. The Sanghatan movement cannot be said to be the spokesman and cannot claim to represent the Hindus as a whole as long as it fails to enlist not only the sympathy but the actual and active participation of the most powerful and prominent and the only organised section of the Hindus—the Hindus of Nepal. The moment Nepal steps in and assumes the lead of the Sanghatan, it will be a power that could no longer be safely despised or neglected by any one in the world. Nepal as the only organised Hindu power owes it as much to herself as to us all. Whatever affects us Hindus as Hindus, must affect our brothers and co-religionists in Nepal too. This pan-Hindu consciousness must be instilled down into the heart of the humblest of the humble of the Nepali Hindu. With this end in view, for the last two years or so, constant attempts have been made through the press and platform to rouse amongst the people a sense of the importance of this Nepali question. Last year, a proposal to offer presidential chair of the Mahasabha at Calcutta to His Majesty the King of Nepal or to His Excellency the Prime Minister was deliberately put forward from the chair and was unanimously adopted at the special session of the Mahasabha at Belgaum, congratulating the King on his progressive policy and assuring him of the feelings of deepest love and loyal pride that all Hindus cherish towards our brethren in Nepal. This interest that the Hindus on our side began to evince in Nepal naturally disturbed some people whose energy is ever employed in one single mission—to keep the Hindus divided in castes and creeds and provinces and sects and sections. Queer and mischievous theories were cooked up insinuating that Nepal was no more a part of India than Tibet was. Nor was she racially, communally or any way organically connected with us, the Hindu outside Nepal. The mischief was transparent and yet unfortunately some Nepali Hindus too did fall a victim to its spacious reasoning and said, ‘We are not Indians; we are Nepali. The Sanghatan has nothing to do with us.’

To defeat this ignoble attempt to alienate Nepali Hindus from Sanghatan and open the eyes of those simple-minded Nepali Hindus who fell a victim to it, required that some prominent Nepali Hindus should come forward, publicly participate in the session of the Hindu Sabhas and respond to the cause of Hindu Sanghatan in no uncertain terms. With this end in view, the leaders of the Bombay Hindu Conference acting on a request submitting to them through a resolution passed by the Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha, sent a special invitation to our Nepali brothers in Calcutta, requesting them to send some prominent gentleman who could grace the assembly by his presence and acquaint us with feelings of our Nepali brothers to some extent or the other as regards the Sanghatan movement. They were fortunate in securing a man of Mr. Agamgiri’s standing, who had been one of the moving spirits in organising the Gurkha Sanghatan Society in Calcutta, and who wrote in the Krishna-Sandesh, a leading weekly in Calcutta, every now and then exhorting our Nepal friends to participate in the pan-Hindu movement. His speech in the conference was the most effective rejoinder that could be given to those who hoped to alienate Nepal from the Sanghatan Movement. In the very opening sentence, the Nepali gentleman emphatically declared that the Gurkhas and the Nepalis look upon Bharatwarsh as their fatherland and their Holy land. Nepal is and will ever continue to be an inalienable part of Bharatwarsh, of Hindusthan. Whatever, he said, affected the fortunes of Hindus outside Nepal must affect her too. Socially, culturally, religiously, communally in all aspects of life and in all questions that relate to Hindudom and Hindu Society as a whole, it was impossible to think of Nepal apart from Bharatwarsh. As a Nepali, he movingly assured the assembly that the deepest sympathy was being felt with the Hindu sufferers who had been subjected to wanton attacks and humiliation and declared that Nepal would not only remain unaffected but would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her Hindu brothers all over India in defence of Hindu culture, Hindu religion, the Hindu temple and the honour of Hindu race, whenever and by whomsoever they be attacked. The reception that was accorded to him when he rose and the way his speech was received by the assembly must have proved to all, who have sense to understand and honesty to acknowledge, that Nepal is sure to fall in rank before long and boldly respond the cause of Hindu Sanghatan. On points of civil, communal, cultural, religious and racial interests, we Hindus all, whether Punjabis or Pahadis, Marathas or Madrasis, Nayars or Nepalis

are one, feel as one and mean to make a common stand, long before they will come to realise this all. Godsend Books and How should man read them? One day, while I sat in the night reading History and comparative sociology, I could not help being overwhelmed by the thought that of all superstitions, which outliving their utility, continued to block human progress, the superstition that attributed Divine origin to a set of books and consequently held every word in them as infallible, as God’s truth, was most responsible for perpetuating senseless animosities and ignorance, which hampered rational advance of mankind not only in science and social solidarity but even in religion itself and ranged man against man and creed against creed with deathless enmity and schism. Verily there have been in human history, more men victimised to death and disaster in the name of God and the Gospels than in the name of the Devil and the Dollar. Nevertheless, it cannot be gainsaid that the greatest boon that mankind could have ever received at the hands of its creator would be a book emanating directly from him setting forth in unmistakable accents His will and command, which he meant us to follow, either for man’s good or God’s glory or for both. In that case, instead of groping from error to error in the dim and fickle light of our unaided human reason, we could have treaded on this fair earth under the Divine Guidance with surest steps and in full confidence that it led us to bliss here and hereafter. We know for certain that this generous hope had actually prompted many a prophet in his search after truth and anxiety to receive a revelation directly from the supreme source of wisdom. Had all the prophets succeeded in receiving their commands from the Creator of man in words and substance uniform, unequivocal and uncircumscribed by time and place or if so mentioning clearly the limitations that defined and determined them, our difficulties and controversies with regard to the authenticity of the revelation would have been very much simplified, if not altogether eliminated. But as it is, revelation differs from revelation in the God-sent books as much as in any man-written books and it is due to the explosion of these mines of discrepancies and contradictions which the God-sent books carry within themselves, that the citadel of orthodoxy is often shattered and the forces of doubt and disbelief rush through the breach to complete its ruin. While I was thus overwhelmed by forces of scepticism and sat sorely afflicted in heart, I felt a strange lassitude creeping over me and sealing my

eyes with sleep. But the train of thought that occupied my mind nevertheless continued in subconscious or superconscious state and I fancied as if a Pandit stepped forth and accosted me thus: ‘Listen’, said he, ‘you wished you had a revelation to enable you to know the right path and to dispense with the erring and confused guidance of human reason. Well, there is such God-sent book as that—the most ancient and the most infallible, emanating as it did from the all-wise and Almighty God Brahma Himself. The only reason that makes you doubt the authenticity of a God- sent book seems to be that it contradicts and even controverts other books that also severely claim to be God-inspired; but it only proves that all of them cannot be really so. It does not rule out the possibility of one of them being a really God-inspired Gospel. Well, that real Gospel, that only true revelation, is this ‘Veda.’ If other Gospels contradicted it, it only proves that they are not really reliable. Their refutation of this Veda, the first and foremost word of God, only refutes themselves.’ While our friend, the Pandit had not even finished this exhortation rushed in the High Priest of the Golden Temple at Jerusalem and with a solemn wave of hand brushing aside all the reasoning of the Pandit as you would a cobweb, said, ‘Not so! The real revelation of the Almighty Father that rules this heaven and earth is that which He, our Lord God, stretching his mighty hand out of the burning cloud of fire and flame that surrounded Mount Sinai delivered to Moses on that fateful day. If Vedas were true, Jehova would have at least mentioned them once in that Holy Book. But, on the contrary, he expressly rules out your Molachs and Thors, your Maruts and Varuns. Jehova is a jealous God and bears the presence of no other God before Him. So only obey and reason not. If others contradict his our Holy Testament, they only belie themselves.’ ‘True! True! what my friend says is even so! But, persuasively puts in my friend, the missionary, so meek, so humble, at this stage, ‘but the Law of Moses emanating though it did from the Lord was nevertheless supplemented and fulfilled by a later revelation which even He, our Father in Heaven charged. His son, the Prince of Peace to proclaim, as was even foretold by Moses and the Prophets of old. The Code issued on Mount Sinai was like an angry ordinance of some sullen Sultan meant only for the troublous times, times of emergency when men went astray and sacrificed to Molachs and worshipped the Golden Calves. But the Law of Life, the law as such that brings Peace unto men contained in the sermon on the Mount. The New Testament is the fulfilment of all old revelations.

Question not, reason not, nay even fear not, only believe in the Bible, in our Lord Jesus the Christ, and thou art saved. Leave all and follow me, says the Christ! But all of a sudden, an angry voice interrupted him here and throwing back the crowd of many a respectable representative of scores of other prophets and Gospels. each claiming his book as the real God-sent book that had been waiting there to take a chance of finding a new recruit in me to their respective faiths, an excited moulavi darted forth and simply commanded me to believe none else but him. ‘Behold’, said he, stroking his beard with fiery restlessness ‘behold this Holy Koran! Abraham and Musa and Isa and other Prophets were prophets indeed but their works, these old and new testaments are, as men now possess, full of interpolations and absurdities. As to the Vedas, it is sacrilege even to name that mumbo-Jumbo of idolatrous crowd along with the works of prophets that went before. It was to end the reign of these scheming impostors that God ordered the last and the greatest of the line of his prophets, Mohomed the Prophet—be his name ever blest, to reveal the Holy Koran on earth. This and this alone is God’s work, all else is the work of Satan. And the only way how man should read it and nothing else! Trust it and reason not. If they do so well and good: if they don’t, to eternal perdition they go!’ At this outburst of this zealous Moulavi, those representatives of several other Gospels who were waiting with equal earnestness to do me a good turn of saving my soul by recommending to me their respective Gospels as the only authentic ones, gently fell back to avoid any unpleasant development their intrusion seemed likely to cause. But I myself rose up and approaching them requested to oblige me by favouring me with a copy of each of their own Gospels and assuring, said, ‘Gentlemen, I revere every one of these God-sent books as deeply as you do though perhaps for reasons other than yours. All these books that claim to be divine revelations are doubtless a precious treasure, which men will do well to guard and preserve and use for their benefit. God-sent or not they are partly Godly indeed. It cannot be for nothing that millions of men have for generations owed allegiance to them and many a soul might have found a solace in them as in no other wordly thing.’ Being requested thus, they all presented me with copies of their religious books— the stately looking Parsee who kept watching over conversation but seemed very reluctant to show off his sacred book as the hawkers do their tinsels in the market place, presented me a copy of the ancient and renowned Zendavesta; the yellow-clad Bhikku of his venerated and venerable and