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Preface
These pages were written after a year and a half work with the Hindu Mission (headquarters: Kalighat, Calcutta) in Bengal and Assam. They express a very old national outlook on religion, in the light of recent personal experiences. The Hindus who have a long and continuous experience among their countrymen, both in the social and political field, are humbly requested not to take offence of any such statements of a junior worker, which may seem premature to them.
The last chapter of the book, concerning the Hindu militia and the cultivation of the art of self-defence among the Hindus, reflects mainly the ideas preached by Srimat Swami Satyananda, the President of the Hindu Mission, and given by him a beginning of application in Assam, with the collaboration of the physical trainer and leader of the Hindu volunteers in Shillong. These same ideas are at the back of the vast youth movement started by Dr. Moonje and the Hindu Maha Sabha.
Rather than of a Hindu militia, we would have preferred to speak of an Indian militia, that is to say, not of a body trained for the protection of the Hindus alone, but of a widespread organisation of young men of all communities, trained for the defence of India’s rights, and solely aiming at the reconquest of India’s freedom and the rise of India’s power. We would have preferred undoubtedly, to speak
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merely of Indians wherever we have spoken of Hindus, throughout this book, and we would have certainly done so, had all the people of Indian birth been at peace, united in the reverence of the same culture and the love of the same land.
We would be only too glad to see our brethren at peace with us, and we are sure that it is not impossible for them to unite with us in view of our highest common interest. This is indeed possible, provided they put India above everything, and we too; provided they are prepared, with us, to push all religious quarrels at the background and make the culture of India their culture, and the love of India their worship.
Unfortunately, the situation is such that we are forced to use, for our own self-defence against the communal exclusivism of many of our brothers, the precious energy which would have been much better employed, combined with theirs, against our common foes.
But I repeat: we do not hate our Indian brothers, Mohammadans, Christians, or whatever they may be; we have no grudge against them. The only thing we hate is anti-national religious fanaticism, from wherever it may come. We know that we have shared, in the past, the same eternal Indian culture with those who have since then, become the Indian Mohammadans and Christians, and, in the same spirit and with the same earnestness as we preach India above all sects to the Hindus, we urge those Indians who believe in so-called world-religions to put India above them. We call them back to our common national culture and civilisation, for the sake of the Nation. If they love the Nation, let them come and join us. They are welcome.
But whoever does not care for India and her culture,
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whether he be born a Mohammadan, a Christian or even a Hindu, should have no place in the country but, at most, as a temporarily sojourning foreigner. Whoever loves any community more than India, should go out of India.
I sincerely thank the President of the Hindu Mission and all the Hindus, my co-workers and friends, who have encouraged me by their support, and also enlightened me by their experience. I thank also the President of the Hindu Maha Sabha, V. D. Savarkar, Dr. Moonje, and the other leaders and prominent members of the Hindu Maha Sabha with whom I had the honour to come in touch, for the inspiration I drew from them.
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Calcutta, May 1939
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The Authoress
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