to conceal secret counsel” and “to remain under complete obedience.”  Every band must “recognize the cultivation of physical strength as a principal means of attaining our object.”  Each band, working down from the chief town of the district, must be connected with other bands, and all must be initiated in the Shakti mantra—­that Shakti worship which constitutes one of the most powerful and popular appeals to the sensuous side of Hindu mysticism.  As for arming the bands, there are different ways of collecting arms, and in this business “there can be no considerations of right or wrong, for everything is laid at the feet of the goddess of independence.”  Bombs can be manufactured in secret places, and guns can be imported from foreign countries, for “the people of the West will sell their own Motherland for money,” or they can be obtained from the native troops who, “though driven by hunger to accept service under Government, are men of our own flesh and blood,” or, perhaps, even “secretly” from other Great Powers.  Funds also can be collected in similar ways.  Much money is required, and amongst other things for “secret preachers at home and abroad.”  It can be obtained “by voluntary donations,” or “by the application of force,” which is perfectly justifiable since the money is to be taken and used “for the good of society.”  Thefts and dacoities are, under normal conditions, crimes because they destroy the sense of social security, but “to destroy it for the highest good is no sin, but rather a work of religious merit.”  The taking of blood is, in the circumstances, equally praiseworthy.  “The law of the English is established on brute force, and if to liberate ourselves we too must use brute force, it is right that we should do so.”  Nor is this doctrine merely stated in general terms:—­

Will the Bengali worshippers of Shakti shrink from the shedding of blood?  The number of Englishmen in this country is not above one lakh and a half, and what is the number of English officials in each district?  If you are firm in your resolution you can in a single day bring English rule to an end.  Lay down your life, but first take a life.  The worship of the goddess will not be consummated if you sacrifice your lives at the shrine of independence without shedding blood.

These are the doctrines of revolutionary Hinduism expounded day by day for nearly two years by a group of highly educated young Bengalees, the effectiveness of whose appeal to sacred traditions was enhanced by remarkable qualities of style.  I have before me a letter from a Hindu scholar who certainly has no sympathy with the methods advocated by the Yugantar—­“Nothing like these articles ever appeared before in Bengali literature.”  “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” and this was essentially true in the case of the Yugantar.  The Government translator confessed in the High Court that he had never before read, in Bengali, language