(2) In studying political economy and social science he meets with such principles as these—­that the ruler is merely the delegate and representative of the people, from whose will he derives all his power.  This power is to be exercised for the well-being of the people who have conferred it, and according to their will in conferring it.  The old idea that all power, even that conferred through the people, is ultimately derived from God and exercised in His Name, is of course never heard of.  The ruler is a public servant of the collective nation, and that is all.  To introduce this notion among a people whose idea of government has run for thousands of years on the lines of absolute monarchy and hereditary if not divine right is nothing short of revolutionary.  All idea of the sacredness of authority is at once gone.  The Government is a thing to be dictated to by the people, to be threatened and bullied and even exterminated if it does not comply with the nation’s wishes.  Hence as soon as the political agitator appears on the scene nothing seems more plausible to the raw mind of the student than an endeavour to upset the existing order of things.  This cannot, of course, all be done at once; but at least a beginning can be made.  Let us agitate for the redress of this or that grievance, for the increase of native appointments, and the like; and if we do not at once get what we ask for, let us try what bullying and intimidation can do—­aspiring ultimately to substitute a representative for a monarchical form of government, and having secured this, wait the opportune moment for driving the foreigner into the sea.  Thus a change which, to be successful, would require the gradual education of the people for generations, is to be forced on at once; and “if constitutional means are not sufficient to achieve our ambition, why not try what unconstitutional means will do?”

NOTE 19

A SHAMELESS APPEAL.

Perhaps the most audacious defence of the enlistment by Hindu politicians of schoolboys and students in the service of a lawless propaganda occurs in an article in the Bengalee of August 2, 1906, shamelessly appealing to the language of Christ.  The Bengalee, which is published in English, is Mr. Surendranath Banerjee’s organ:—­

“In all great movements boys and young men play a prominent part, the divine message comes first to them; and they are persecuted and they suffer for their faith.  ‘Suffer the little children to come unto Me,’ are the words of the divinely-inspired Founder of Christianity; and the faith that is inseparable from childhood and youth is the faith which has built up great creeds and has diffused them through the world.  Our boys and young men have been persecuted for their Swadeshism; and their sufferings have made Swadeshism strong and vigorous.”

NOTE 20 (page 241).

THE BRAHMANS AND WESTERN EDUCATION.