of the Royal Asiatic Society and identified himself entirely with it. During the years 1872, 1873 and 1874 he was engaged in a spirited controversy with Prof. Weber of Berlin on the question of the age of Patanjali. In May, 1874, he contributed a long article on the ‘the Vedas in India’. He was invited to join the International Congress of Orientalists which met in London in 1874. For domestic reasons he could not accept the invitation but he sent a paper on the Nasik Inscriptions’, which was acclaimed as one of the best treatises and considerably enhanced his reputation. Next year he was made an honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society. In 1876 was instituted Wilson philology lectureship and Bhandarkar was the first lecturer. His lectures in this connection are of permanent value and interest. In 1879 the Bombay Government entrusted him with the work of conducting searches for sanskrit manuscripts. He used periodically six volumes of reports regarding his operations. They still form a vast storehouse of historic information on various topics and are of permanent interest to all students of early Indian history. His editing, in this connection, of old Jain manuscripts led to a resuscitation of the history of the Jain sect, of which little was known till then. In the course of his search he was able to gather materials which he subsequently utilized for the publication of his Outlines of Vaishnavism.
In 1885 the University of Gottingen (Germany) honoured Bhandarkar by conferring on him the degree of Ph. D. Next year he visited the great Congress of Orientalists held at Vienna. After this many learned societies in Europe and America vied with each other in honouring him. He was generally recognized as the leading Sanskritist in India. In 1884 had been published his well-known Early History of the Deccan. One of his greatest works is Vaishnavism, Saivism and Minor Religious Sects published so late as 1913. Towards the middle of 1915, many loving disciples and admirers of Bhandarkar conceived the idea of founding an Oriental institute which would offer facilities to research workers and at the same time commemorate the memory of Bhandarkar. The scheme soon materialised, thanks to the aid of Sir Ratan and Sir Dorab Tata and the Bhandarkar Institute was formally inaugurated by Lord Willingdon in July, 1917. A band of scholars trained under his influence are here continuing the work of Bhandarkar.
Swaraj under Slave Mentality?
Our July article “On the Death of Mr. C. R. Das” (from the pen of Prof. Jadunath Sarkar) has been reprinted in some daily papers. The Marathi monthly review Prabodhan (of Poona) has also published a full translation of it. The writer there says:—
“..........we worship gurus, we love to surrender our moral judgment and human will to the one-man ruler, we look to him and him alone for guidance and order at every step..........The history of Bengal during the next few months will furnish the answer to the question whether we have..........acquired the one indispensable basis of popular government,..........Have we learnt that the nation is greater than the individual?”
An answer to the question has been furnished authoritatively with startling rapidity. Mr. J. M. Sen Gupta, the new chief of the Swaraj Party in Bengal, in a public speech on 2nd August last, declared:
“Their (i.e. Bengali) young men attach too much importance to their conscience. If they were earnest about winning Swaraj, they must he prepared to give less importance to their conscience..........and follow unquestioningly the leader appointed by the Association.” (The Statesman, 3rd August, 1925).
So, the situation is clearly this: one party leader of personal magnetism is gone and the party will fall to pieces unless his successor in office is paid blind obedience, by each man suspending his conscience, which is the power of distinguishing between right and wrong. Those who seek Swaraj must therefore, according to Mr. Sen Gupta, lose their own moral judgment, and while leader follows leader to the grave the young men of Bengal must continue to be hereditary bondsman to them. And this slave mentality is held upto our noblest youths as the sure road to Swaraj!
It would be truer to quote to them the poet’s answer to such deluded patriots,—
Not for you will Freedom’s altars flame
But slave succeed to slave through years
of endless toil
Not Quite Unlike India. The dissimilarities of the inhabitants of different parts of India are made much of to show that there is not and cannot be any Indian unity, though such dissimilarities exist in many other countries. We did not, however, suspect that United Italy was si ill’ to some extent such a country. But Ida Koritchoner writes in the August Conic,uporary lievieio :— The country classed as “Italy,” a new unity of some 70 years’ standing only, comprises people" as different from one another and as impatient of < no another’s failings as races entirely apart They do not speak each other’s language, do not know each other’s habits, customs, conditions of livhi"' Unless a Calabrian peasant has travelled throu di taking part in the World War, he has no inkling of what a city like Milan or Romo can I • he knows no postmen, no water pipes.
The Peerless British Empire. In writing of “The Truth About Morocc" in The Contemporary Review, Deckles Wills.-n lets us know some “truths” about India as ne conceives them. Says he :— It is a common experience of the traveller io hear the example of Britain quoted, to hear a French patriot say, “You English can afford to talk ! Look at your Empire : you have got Canada a d Australia and India and Egyot and South Afi ic t
