The new spirit in India

Festival of Diwali at Poona—The plague—Mr. Gokhale’s Society of “Servants of India”—His past history—Member of the Viceroy’s Legislative Council—Rules of the Society—Social and...

Plague and rats—Previous attempts to check plague—The rat-flea—War on rats—Plague mortality—A plague hospital—Symptoms of plague—Course of the sickness—Descriptions of former pl...

The custom of garlanding—The fortress of Singarh—Mr. Tilak—Religion and scholarship—Theory of the Vedas—His past history—Breach at Nagpur—His statement of his party’s aims and m...

Mr. Junshi on family worship—His passion for statistics—“Statistical abstract”—Finance and population—Expenditure on Army, Education, and official Christianity—The Land Settleme...

The pride of Madras—Municipal labours—Decentralization Commission—A student of philosophy—The religion of the grave—The religion of healing—A temple of Vishnu—A family ceremony—...

The country and government—Mountains, rivers, and plains—The great flood of 1907—Brown skeletons—Officials and figures—Settlement revision—Scene of flood and famine—Deposit of s...

Pilgrims at Puri—Shrine of Juggernath—Legend of the car—Possible origin of the god’s fame—Benefit of equality—Brother and sister—Inequality in India—Its consequences on Indian a...

Eastern Bengal—Its rivers—Its fertility—Ancient weaving industry—Modern hand-looms—Growth of jute—Variable prices—Jute or rice?—Settlement and zemindars—Boycott on cotton and sa...

Earlier forms of Swadeshi—The Swadeshi Oath—Effect of the movement—Encouraged by women—Various Swadeshi manufactures—Official encouragement—Congress resolutions—Boycott and pick...

Dacca—City anchorite—Nawab Salimulla—His history and position—Government loan—Support of Partition—Mohammedan against Hindu—Nawab’s palace—His conversation—Views on cooking, jew...

The Kalighat of Calcutta—Worship of Kali—Her symbolism—Other temple of Kali—Ramakrishna Society—Moti Lal Ghose—His brother and religion—The _Amrita Bazar Patrika_—Moti Lal’s opi...

Journey to Surat—Dr. Rash Behari Ghose—Arrival at Surat—News of attempted assassination of Mr. Allen—Separate Extremist camp—Questions of the Calcutta resolutions—Attitude towar...

Scene by the river at Benares—A pilgrim of the Ganges—How a man’s soul is absorbed into the universal soul—Whether the crowd desire such absorption—How indifference to this tran...

Why an Indian official slept in the cold—Famine near Allahabad—Description of country—Wells and tanks—Sir John Hewett and relief—Sympathy of officials in famine—Test works—A sta...

A Vedic service—The Samaj at Lahore—Its founder Dayananda—Growth and objects—Two divisions—Lajpat Rai’s connection with Samaj—His past history—Devotion to social and religious r...

The palace at Baroda—Vasantha—Maharajah and Resident—Honours to the Empire—Dust of flowers—Life of a Native Ruler—Administration of Baroda—Alleged errors—Measures of reform—Soci...

Our government of India—Danger of withdrawal to ourselves and India—Our probable successor if we withdrew—Signs of new spirit in India—Our contributions to new spirit—External c...

It was the Indian festival of Diwali, held at Poona on Guy Fawkes’ Day, and celebrated with innumerable flames, like our own thanksgiving for the protection of King and Parliame...

The bubonic plague, as I said, had been known in India for only eleven years, but from the first the common people had noticed its connection with rats. The sight of a dead rat...

I knew it would come. Till I had been some time in Bombay, I did not realize the custom, but the moment I realized it, I felt there was no escape. As often happens with forebodi...

Several times in Poona I met a Mr. Junshi (as I will call him), who lived in one of the beautiful houses the Mahrattas used to build while their Peshwas still reigned. He was an...

Madras, the most Oriental of the great Indian cities, is well known to English people as the first foothold of Elizabethan merchants, the fortress of Clive, and the coral strand...

It was evening, and the sky was full of the deep and ominous colours of an Indian sunset in the rains. A hot wind blowing in from the sea threw the waves in heavy surf upon the...

The holy region of Orissa, where stand the temples of Juggernath, “Lord of the World,” and of Tribhuvaneshwar, less famous but “Lord of Three Worlds” all the same, needs what we...

From every part of India, by day and night, the pilgrims come, and the roads to the great temple, by the sea at Puri, are always open and always thronged. The pilgrims come from...

The plains of Eastern Bengal have been formed grain by grain from the washings of the dividing range of Asia brought down by melted snow on its way to the sea. Rivers that rise...

The Partition led to Swadeshi. Of course, there was nothing new in an attempt to encourage Indian industries. For thirty years past the true friends of India, like Sir William W...

Dacca still wears something of a Mohammedan air, for Akbar’s long arm reached to Eastern Bengal, and the inheritors of his empire here built a fort, a palace, and a capital. Pas...

All know the crowded Kalighat on the muddy little branch of the Ganges south of Calcutta. The little temple of the mother Kali stands close by, where Hindus keep up an animal sa...

It was roses, roses all the way—almost all the way during the forty-four hours in the train from Calcutta to Surat; and along the last part of our journey every platform was cro...

I had escaped to the Ganges, as myriads of transitory pilgrims have escaped before. From the distractions of politics and the dust of practical reforms I had come to the quiet r...

“Cold!” I said, just for something to say, as I came out of the dak-bungalow into the thin January air before sunrise, and met an educated Indian, who said “Good morning!”

It was evening service, at the hour when sunset is still bright, but if you stare into the sky, you suddenly see the stars. A few score of boys and young men were gathered round...

The mango trees were all in bloom, and the air full of their smell. It has just the touch of turpentine in it that makes the mango fruit so pleasant, and is so refreshing in an...

Let it be granted, as a matter of bare fact, quite apart from any wishes or opinions, that for many years to come we shall retain military and administrative command in India. R...