of Kshatriya descent, in order to stimulate martial virtues amongst the Bengalees by reviving for their benefit the old Vedic caste of warriors.  Equally significant is the propaganda that has been carried on by Brahmans amongst the Namasudras, a large and mainly agricultural caste, chiefly located in the Jessor district of Bengal and the Faridpur district of Eastern Bengal.  The purpose of the propaganda was political, but the inducement offered to the Namasudras in order to stimulate their Nationalism was that the Brahmans would relax the rigour of caste in favour of those who took the Swadeshi vow, and it is stated that, in several villages where they succeeded in making a large number of converts, the Brahman agitators marked their approval by condescending to have their “twice-born” heads shaved by the village barber—­an act which, however trivial it may seem to us, constituted an absolutely revolutionary breach with a 3,000 years-old past.

On the other hand, the constant invocation of the “terrible goddess,” whether as Kali or as Durga, against the alien oppressors, shows that Brahmanism in Bengal is equally ready to appeal to the grossest and most cruel superstitions of the masses.  In another of her forms she is represented holding in her hand her head, which has been severed from her body, whilst the blood gushing from her trunk flows into her open mouth.  A very popular picture of the goddess in this form has been published with a text to the effect that the great goddess as seen therein symbolizes “the Motherland” decapitated by the English, but nevertheless preserving her vitality unimpaired by drinking her own blood.  It is not surprising that amongst extremists one of the favourite euphemisms[10] applied to the killing of an Englishman is “sacrificing a white goat to Kali.”  In 1906 I was visiting one of the Hindu temples at Benares and found in the courtyard a number of young students who had come on an excursion from Bengal.  I got into conversation with them, and they soon began to air, for my benefit, their political views, which were decidedly “advanced.”  They were, however, quite civil and friendly, and they invited me to come up to the temple door and see them sacrifice to Kali a poor bleating kid that they had brought with them.  When I declined, one of them who had already assumed a rather more truculent tone came forward and pressed me, saying that if I would accompany them they would not mind even sacrificing a white goat.  There was a general shout of laughter at what was evidently regarded by the others as a huge joke.  I turned away, though I did not then understand its grim humour, as I do now.