CHAPTER VII
THE LOKAMANYA
My position among the people entirely depends upon my character; and if I am cowed down by the prosecution, * * * living in Maharashtra is as good as living in the Andamans * * * We are incapable of nourishing any sinster feeling against the British Rule and it is thus impossible for any of us to be convicted of such a heinous charge as sedition. Such risks however, we must take * * They are the risks of our profession * * Their (the Government's) object is to humiliate the Poona leaders, and I think in me they will not find a "kutchha reed". . . Then you must remember that beyond a certain stage we are all servants of the people. You will be betraying and disappointing them, if you show a lamentable want of courage at a critical time.
THE cruel murder of Mr. Rand and Lieut. Ayerst threw the Anglo-Indian community into a state of panic. The psychological day of the Jubilee selected by the murderer for his deed, raised suspicion in the Anglo-Indian mind that the murder was the result of a deep-laid plot by the Poona Brahmins. When the murderer made good his escape, the Anglo-Indians vented their feelings of revenge in an attack on the Indian press which, by its "seditious writings," was considered to have fanned the people into frenzy. They clamoured for a very wide use of Sec. 124A of the Penal Code. They declared their misgivings about the suitability
