for a period of five years, three of which are to be spent at the society’s home in Poona, or over the ordinary members admitted to the full privileges of the society, or over those who, as attaches, associates, and permanent assistants, are very closely affiliated to it without being actually received into membership.  The scheme is, of course, at present in its infancy, as the society still numbers only about 25, the majority of whom have not yet completed their term of probation.  Mr. Gokhaie, however, hopes very soon to have 50 probationers constantly in residence, and he has already gathered together in the well-appointed buildings of the society’s home just outside Poona, in close proximity to the Ferguson College, a group of young men, to some of whom he kindly introduced me, who have evidently caught the fervour of his enthusiasm.  One of the latest recruits was by birth a Mahomedan, of whom Mr. Gokhale was specially proud, as he is very anxious that the society shall be, in fact as well as in theory, representative of all castes and creeds.

One of the first questions which this remarkable experiment suggests is whether the ideals which Mr. Gokhale sets before the “Servants of India” will suffice to supply the necessary driving power.  Hitherto some form of religious faith and the hope of some heavenly reward have alone availed to induce men to renounce the world and all its material interests and surrender themselves to a life of rigorous and selfless discipline in the service of their fellow-creatures, or rather in the service of God through their fellow-creatures.  Mr. Gokhale’s society makes no claim to any religious sanction.  Though Indian asceticism has from the most remote times found devotees willing to lead a life of far more complete self-annihilation than any that the most rigorous monastic orders of Christendom have ever imposed, or that, for the matter of that, Mr. Gokhale seeks to impose upon his followers, it has always been inspired by some religious conception.  Will the “Servants of India” find the same permanent inspiration in the cult of an Indian Motherland, however highly spiritualized, that has no rewards to offer either in this world or in any other?  On the political as well as other potentialities of such an organization as Mr. Gokhale contemplates there is no need to dwell.  For the “Servants of India,” moulded by one mind and trained to obey one will, are to go forth as missionaries throughout India, in the highways and by-ways, among the “untouchables” as well as among the higher classes, preaching to each and all the birth of an Indian nation.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE GROWTH OF WESTERN EDUCATION.