भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

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

Tripitaka but seeming quite indifferent to claim for his Holy books, the
gilded title of a God-sent revelation! The followers of the unlucky prophets
Museilama and Al-aswad who set themselves up as rivals to Mahomed and
claimed the prerogative of Prophethood for themselves, the followers of the
Veiled Prophet’ and of the ‘Moon Maker’ and of the Prophet Karmala and
of several others offered to me copies of their Gospels. Even the Mormons
obliged me by letting me have a copy of the famous golden book the
Prophet Mormon received only very recently in America as an up-to-date
word of God. Nor did any one of them forget to recommend to me and for
reasons similar to those used by the Pandit and the Missionary and the
Moulavi, that his Gospel was the only real revelation of God and the best
way how man should read it and it alone. Thereupon, I thanked them all and
bidding goodbye, bowed low—and as I was doing so, I awoke.
But the impression that the dream had left upon my mind was so vivid that
I could hardly avoid believing it, as innumerable saints are reported to have
done under similar circumstances—to be an actual visitation and no
ephemeral illusion. I decided, therefore, to take it all seriously and
pondering deeply over what the pious men had said found to my great relief
that although each of them had denied to human reason the right of
questioning the truth of whatever be the contents of his sacred books, his
God-sent Gospel, when one has accepted it as such, yet they all seemed to
sanction or concede the use of reason in the act of making one’s choice as to
which of the several alleged revelations was the most authentic one. Nay,
strangely enough, they had to advance reasons even to prove that men
should not reason at all, indulging in the contents of a divine revelation
when once your choice is made. In fact, missions as such are but bodies that
are out only to reason and argue and persuade men to distinguish the true
Gospels from the false ones. Not only that but even the Prophets themselves
did not hesitate to argue and reason with men so that they might be able to
separate the wheat from the chaff, the imposters from the Prophets and come
to believe in the really God-sent books. Does not the Arabian Prophet, for
example, thunder from Sura, from paragraph to paragraph, that those who
refused to believe in the Holy Koran revealed to him, will be eternally lost
and consigned to perdition? And is not this pointing to a rod also a way of
reasoning? When asked by the Faithless to produce a sign to prove his
divine mission, did he not chide them by reminding them that they had tried
to test even the Prophets that went before him, and failed to extract a sign

from them too, and later on pointed out to this wide earth and the rising
mountains and the bounteous fields as mighty signs and miracles that
attested to his being the real and the only messenger of God? Nay,
sometimes, as is recorded in the second and some other chapters of the Holy
Koran, he challenged the unbelievers to produce a single line in such a
polished Arabian style as that, which marked the lines, in which the Koran
was being revealed and flourished their inability to do so as a conclusive
proof of the Koran’s being a really inspired and God-sent work. He taunted
every now and then the false Prophets who write a book with their own hand
and pass it on as God-written and God-sent. This also proves that the art of
issuing counterfeit Gospels was well known to the generation and people
amongst which the Prophet flourished. It was also for this reason that he not
only permitted but commended men to argue and compare such books with
his own in the light of human reason and logic and even diction. In the Holy
Bible too, we meet every now and then with arguments advanced by Jesus
and Christ to combat those who questioned his inspiration and Prophethood.
Those who demanded signs and miracles, were at times rebuked for want of
faith and at other times supplied with them. ‘Ye build sepulchres unto those
whom your fathers stoned to death’ he sternly reminded his persecutors and
quoted old prophesies to prove that all they had foretold came to pass in his
life and corroborated his Prophethood. In the Vedic-fold, too, lengthy and
elaborate discussions as to the authenticity of the Vedas as a God-inspired
scripture are a common feature in works, not only heterodox but even
orthodox, that aid to interpret them. Even Jaimini himself, after mentioning
that a school existed even then, which did not attribute the Vedas to any
divine and impersonal agency but boldly asserted that they were the work of
men, though highly gifted and spiritual, enters into reasoned argumentation
to prove otherwise.
All these facts enable us to conclude that on the following four points at
any rate, there reigns perfect unanimity amongst the followers of almost all
sacred books that are extant today and looked upon as God-sent by the
respective creeds. To start with, our friends, the Pandit, the Missionary, the
Moulavi, the Rabbi down to the followers of Mormon and Al-swad and the
Moonmakers and even of the Aga khan and Kadiani, each and all, not only
admit but strongly maintain that all these books that claim to be God-sent
cannot altogether be such, as the mutual contradictions and glaring
antagonisms, with which they abound, do incontrovertibly prove. The